Exciting two-parter: Cooperation between the municipalities of Kerpen and Bergheim is as exemplary as it is rare.How this can turn into an enchanting and educational evening on the subject of castles and castles in the Rhein-Erft district was demonstrated by three history jecks on one evening at Loersfeld Castle.

Astrid Machuj, the chairwoman of the Bergheim Museum Association and Markus Potes, as chairman of the Association for History and Local History Quadrath-Ichendorf 1985 e.V.  to finally teach people the grunting after a long break.Namely with stories of relevant legends from the region (Link) The lecture by Susanne Harke-Schmidt, chairwoman of the Heimatverein Kerpen and city archivist in the Kolpingstadt, was about partly no less hair-raising, factual historical knowledge about the Kerpen castles. Incidentally, it was the two women who had decided on the evening together.

Many thanks to the City Archive Kerpen for the great pictures.

High density of castles and castles

Susanne Harke-Schmidt, chairwoman of the Heimatverein Kerpen and the city archivist, highly recommended the exhibition in the rooms of the Bergheim Museum Association "Castles and Castles in the Old District of Bergheim". More than 35 castles and castles present the exhibition.An incredible and hardly comparable density of castles and castles in the district, whose beauty is best discovered by bicycle.

Kerpen Castle

Kerpen had some to offer, such as the Kerpen Castle, which was captured by the Spaniards at the time in an unprecedented demonstration of power, with gun noise from so many cannons that it could be heard as far as Cologne.A drawing shows the former lords, the Dutch, tied to the trees.More than just a hill was left of the Kerpen castle, which was beautifully built again at the end of the 16th century, after which it was even more often the subject of military and conceptual intentions.

By the way, the Kerpen Castle was probably the castle where Jan von Werth had registered at the beginning of the 17th century to go to the 30th year of the war, Harke-Schmidt drew the arc to the historical game "Jan und Grieth" of the two Bergheimers, Machuj and Potes.

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Kerpen City Archive: From the sketchbook of Rolshausen, the manuscript of military installations in the Gotha Research Library and Renier Roidkin drawing by Hammersbach.

Three water castles: Hemmersbach, Türnich, Bergerhausen

The three still stately water castles are different.The one in Hemmersbach is known as the castle of those of Trips with its most famous sprout, the racing driver Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips.The Castle of Türnich was reconstructed as the "Maison de Plaisance" on old walls in the Rococo style. The Counts family Hoensbroech, who bought the house in 1850 as a bargain from the last of those of Rolshausen, a man with high gambling debts, "save the valuable ensemble for all of us," according to the city archivist.

By the way, you can read about the Türnicher Schlosspark here on Nahbesprechung.net.

And there is the fortified Castle Bergerhausen.A floor plan of the latter was recently discovered, in a research library in Gotha, in a manuscript about military installations from the 17th century, she could hardly believe it, Harke-Schmidt said. By the way, the function of the two towers of very different dimensions can be read on it, the defensive left tower of the Wasserburg in the riding of the Electorate of Cologne, had been facing the "Spanish Kerpen", the right to the centre of Blatzheim.

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Loersfeld Castle

But the house to which the friendly history clubs had led their guests, namely Schloss Loersfeld with its square residential tower, in the middle of the ten-hectare park, was considered the lion's share of Susanne Harke-Schmidt's lecture.In 1262, the village was first mentioned in a document, a farm between the Parrig and Lörsfelder Busch.Only the Spieß von Büllesheim family made a castle out of it in the 15th and 16th centuries with the typical square residential tower. Until modern times, Schloss Loersfeld was able to develop without warlike destruction.

The number of court records of the Kerpener Schöffengericht in the Stadtarchiv, dated from 1608 to 1742, concerning the castle Loersfeld on tax and lease matters, property and inheritance disputes were extensive.One of the "most cute acts" was one of 1647,

a "defloration lawsuit" (here is a link to the city archive)

In it, the tenant had sued his horseman, saying that he had deflorated his underage daughter, thus "dejuvenated and, in the process, stupidly even sworn in."

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With the help of a potion from the Kalmus root, the son of the horseman wanted to have an abortion.In order for the potion to work with the girl, he had to sit naked on her bed for three nights.After all, everything came out.

"The nobility in the heart"

In 1799, a family of four, a liquor dealer and ten servants lived on Loersfeld, which was the property of a Cologne merchant, Georg Albert Reinecker. In 1819 he sold it to the von Fürstenberg family. In the pedigree of the Adolph von Fürstenberg, the proof of 16 noble ancestors, one could read a "magical addition" about a not so lupen-pure connection with a bourgeois, according to the archivist.Instead of the usual depiction of an aristocratic coat of arms, it should be read that the lady has "the nobility in her heart".

But the machinations of the Nazi regime are also reflected in files on the castle. The communist Ludwig Dreesen was in so-called protective custody on 28.4. taken in 1933. At his residence at Loersfeld Castle, the defendants hid the printing presses for prohibited publications. At the time of his arrest, his wife Sofia was pregnant with their fifth child.With his wife and four daughters he lived first at Loersfeld Castle, later in Kerpen, Düren and Manheim, and in 1951 the father of seven died at the age of 53.

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Renovation 1990s

Susanne Harke-Schmidt presented exciting pictures in a chapter that is most important for the preservation of the castle, namely the comprehensive renovation of the entire complex in the 1990s.The affinity for the castle and good food resulted in the plan of the current landlord Thomas Bellefontaine to open a restaurant there. In the process, a long-gone old horse potion had been found, today's fountain.

http://www.schlossloersfeld.de