Are Castle (pronounced "Ahr-er", ) is the

ruin Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

of a

hill castle A hill castle or mountain castle is a castle built on a natural feature that stands above the surrounding terrain. It is a term derived from the German ''Höhenburg'' used in categorising castle sites by their topographical location. Hill castles a ...

that stands at a height of above the village of

Altenahr Altenahr () is a municipality in the district of Ahrweiler, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative centre for the eponymous collective municipality, to which it belongs. Altenahr is a state-recognised tourist resort and is ra ...

in the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

. It was built around 1100 by Count

Dietrich I of Are Dietrich () is an ancient German name meaning "ruler of the people", but also "keeper of the keys" or "lockpick" (either the tool or the profession). Given name * Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg (c. 1398–1440) * Thierry of Alsace (; 1099–1168), ...

and is first recorded in 1121. Since 1965 the '' Are Gymnasium'' – a local grammar school – in

Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler () is a spa town in the German States of Germany, Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate that serves as the Capital (political), capital of the Ahrweiler (district), Ahrweiler district. The Bundesautobahn 61, A61 motorway conn ...

has borne the name which is derived from the

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

and its eponymous

noble family Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the rea ...

Design

The plan of the castle is rectangular. As well as parts of the

outer ward An outer bailey or outer ward is the defended outer enclosure of a castle.Friar, Stephen (2003). ''The Sutton Companion to Castles'', Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 22. It protects the inner bailey and usually contains those ancillary bu ...

and a gate – the so-called ''Gymnicher Porz'' – remains of the

defensive wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with t ...

have survived. In addition, on the southern side of the site, is an old

gate tower A gate tower is a tower built over or next to a major gateway. Usually it is part of a medieval fortification. This may be a town or city wall, fortress, castle or castle chapel. The gate tower may be built as a twin tower on either side of a ...

(also called the ''Schellenturm''), as well as the ruins of the

palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval '' Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson ...

, which once had a heated bishop's chamber. The first

bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Italian: ''torrione''; Castilian: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries an ...

probably stood on the pointed dome of rock in its northern corner. North of that are extensive remains of the Romanesque

castle chapel Castle chapels () in European architecture are chapels that were built within a castle. They fulfilled the religious requirements of the castle lord and his retinue, while also sometimes serving as a burial site. Because the construction of suc ...

dating to the 12th century.

''Gymnicher Porz'' gatehouse

Below Are Castle lie the remains of the ''Gymnicher Porz'', ''Porz'' standing for ''Pforte'' or "portal". This was the lower gateway on the access road to the castle which, in combination with a wall, barred the way to the castle hill. The structure comprised a

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most ...

over the access road, an attached castle house (''Burghaus''), with a basement and two floors housing living accommodation, and an attached tower. It took its name from the House of Gymnich. Several members of the family held the castle in

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

(they were ‘’Pfandnehmer’’) in the 14th and 16th centuries. It is suspected that the gate system was built during this time. From time to time the Gymnicher Porz was an independent fief (''Burglehen'') of the House of Gymnich.

Conservation

From 1997 to 1999 the ruins were made safe at a high financial cost and classed as a

protected monument In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. Since then they have been open to the public once more. The conservation work that began in March 1997 had the primary purpose of protecting

traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

. There was a risk of rocks and stones from the site falling onto the federal highway. The construction material was transported to the castle site on a cable suspended from a

Hughes 500 500 may refer to: * 500 (number) * 500 BC * AD 500 Buildings and places * 500 Boylston Street in Boston * 500 Brickell in Miami * 500 Capitol Mall in Sacramento * 500 Fifth Avenue * 500 Renaissance Center, one of seven buildings in the GM Ren ...

helicopter. After 30 flights the laden

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

crashed on 9 April 1997 because the cable caught on its skids. The pilot received fatal injuries. In autumn 1997 the long palas wall and its two side walls were restored. To guarantee the stability of the walls, 65 anchors were driven up to deep into the

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

rock.

History

In 1246 Count Frederick of Hochstaden,

provost Provost may refer to: Officials Ecclesiastic * Provost (religion), a high-ranking church official * Prince-provost, a high-ranking church official Government * Provost (civil), an officer of local government, including the equivalent ...

Xanten Xanten (, Low Rhenish: ''Santen'') is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel. Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the ...

, with the assent of his brother Conrad of Are-Hochstaden gifted the county and its castles - Are, Hardt and Hochstaden – to the

Archbishopric of Cologne Archbishopric of Cologne may refer to: * Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne, the spiritual jurisdiction of the archbishops of Cologne since * Electorate of Cologne, the temporal jurisdiction of the archbishops of Cologne between the mid-13th ce ...

. Its expansion with a surrounding

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin ''incinctus'' "girdled, surrounded") is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the positio ...

was carried out during the period of Electoral Cologne in the 14th and 15th centuries in order to protect the Electorate's estates in the Ahr region. In the 16th and 17th centuries there were only minor changes to the castle in the form of repairs and replacement buildings. Periodically the castle was also used as a

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cri ...

in which the

archbishops of Cologne The Archbishop of Cologne governs the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne in western North Rhine-Westphalia. Historically, the archbishop was ''ex officio'' one of the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire and ruled the Electorate of Colog ...

incarcerated their enemies. For a long time Are Castle was a spiritual and cultural centre for the whole area. Increasingly often, the archbishops of Cologne enfeoffed Are Castle with the district (''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

'') of Altenahr. The liegemen were installed as '' Amtmännern'' and most of the also lived at the castle. Over a long time the castle fell into a poor state of repair because the vassals did not carry out the necessary work. One exception was the period of Henry of the Horst, who died in 1625. In 1690 the castle was captured by French troops after a nine-month

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

. The castle was badly damaged by shelling. In 1697 the French withdrew, but occupied the castle again during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

that began in 1701. In 1706 the castle was taken over by Electoral Cologne forces and the area became unsafe. For this reason

Prince Elector The prince-electors ( pl. , , ) were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Usually, half of the electors were archbishops. From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince- ...

Joseph Clemens of Bavaria Joseph Clemens of Bavaria () (4 December 1671 – 12 November 1723) was a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty of Bavaria and also served as the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne from 1688 to 1723. Biography The third son of Ferdinand Maria, El ...

had the walls blown up in 1714 with the agreement of the villagers. Since then the castle has been a ruin. Reusable materials such as wood and stone were used as construction materials for the rebuilding of the district house (''Amtshaus'') at the foot of the castle hill. Johann Wilhelm Schirmer Burg Are bei Altenahr.jpg, The castle and ''Gymnicher Porz'' around 1830 Burg Are und Gymnch Porz.jpg, The castle and gateway today from a similar standpoint Burg Are Hauptburg.jpg, Inner ward Gymnich Porz Ruine innen.jpg, Ruins of the castle house of the ''Gymnicher Porz'' with the remains of the chimney Altenahr.JPG, Castle chapel

The counts of Are

A Sigewin of Are, Archbishop of Cologne is mentioned in the records as early as 1087, but Dietrich I of Are is viewed as the primogenitur of the House of Are. The comital family named themselves after the river

Ahr Ahr () is a river in Germany, a left tributary of the Rhine. Its source is at an elevation of approximately above sea level in Blankenheim in the Eifel, in the cellar of a timber-frame house near the castle of Blankenheim. After it crosses f ...

, whose surrounding area they owned. In 1140 the family divided into the lines of Are-Hochstaden and Are-Nürburg. Members of the family include: * Gerhard of Are, from 1124 to 1169 provost of Bonn's Cassius foundation (''Cassius-Stift''), who had the

Bonn Minster Bonn Minster () is a Catholic church in Bonn. It is one of Germany's oldest churches, having been built between the 11th and 13th centuries. At one point the church served as the de facto cathedral for the Archbishopric of Cologne, because it is t ...

church enlarged. * Frederick II of Are, 1152 to 1168

Bishop of Münster A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

Lothar of Hochstaden Lothar von Hochstaden (died 1194 in Rome) was Bishop of Liège and archchancellor. Background He came from the family of the Counts of Hochstaden. Lothar von Hochstaden was the brother of the Dietrich von Are-Hochstaden of Hohenstaufen. He was p ...

, 1192/93

Bishop of Liège A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

* Dietrich II of Are, 1197 to 1212

Bishop of Utrecht List of bishops and archbishops of the diocese and archdioceses of Utrecht. Medieval diocese from 695 to 1580 Founders of the Utrecht diocese * * * * * Bishops * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ...

* Conrad of Hochstaden, from 1238 to 1261, Archbishop of Cologne and builder of

Cologne Cathedral Cologne Cathedral (, , officially , English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia belonging to the Catholic Church. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archd ...

Literature

* Ignaz Görtz: ''"Wo sie am höchsten ragen, the Felsen der Ahr …" Beitrag zur Baugeschichte der Burg Are''. In: Kreisverwaltung Ahrweiler (publ.): ''Heimatjahrbuch für den Kreis Ahrweiler 1961''. Schiffer, Rheinberg, 1961, , pp. 94–98
online
. * Ignaz Görtz: ''Inventaraufnahme auf Burg Altenahr im Jahre 1625''. In: Kreisverwaltung Ahrweiler (publ.): ''Heimatjahrbuch für den Kreis Ahrweiler 1963''. Schiffer, Rheinberg, 1963, , pp. 133–135

. * Christine Schulze: ''Millionen für the Burg Are''. In: Kreisverwaltung Ahrweiler (publ.): ''Heimatjahrbuch des Kreises Ahrweiler 2000''. Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, 1999, , pp. 47–50

. * Joachim Gerhardt, Heinrich Neu: ''Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Ahrweiler''. 1. Halbband. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1938, pp. 146–156.

References

Jürgen Kempenich: ''Sanierung endete tödlich''. In: Kreisverwaltung Ahrweiler (publ.): ''Heimatjahrbuch des Kreises Ahrweiler 1998''. Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, 1999, , p. 10
online
).

External links

{{Commons
Artist’s impression of the castle in medieval times
Ahrweiler (district) Heritage sites in Rhineland-Palatinate Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Castles in the Eifel Ahr