Hohensyburg Castle, Dortmund, Germany

The Hohensyburg, a castle complex of the Lords of Sieberg, was constructed on the grounds of a former Saxon refuge, which was conquered in 775 by the Franks under Charlemagne. The castle, which was built around 1100 of Ruhr sandstone, was partially destroyed in 1287 by Count Eberhard I. von der Mark. The castle complex was an imperial fief of the von der Mark counts from 1300. This fiefdom was transferred to Brandenburg in 1609, and later to Prussia.

Two keeps, residential quarters (two-chamber system), the wall ring and the walls around the courtyard complex are still recognisable. In the inside of the castle is a war memorial by Fritz Bagdons.

References:

Dortmund Tourism

User Reviews

Artur Alves (2 years ago)
Very beautiful and peaceful.

Richard Shift (2 years ago)
A good place for a walk, specially if there's snow.. Alot of people was playing there, also with the children.

Ambrose Mosha (2 years ago)
Was real good and its nice place for chilling and having fun

Mainak Das Gupta (3 years ago)
Very nice place to spend some time strolling through the woods and ruins. The view of the Rhur river from the top is quite nice. My only complain is that there are no informative plaques around the memorial. One needs to read about the details over the internet.

Carlos Gomez (3 years ago)
Excellent place to visit, great view, walking trails, benches to seat and rest. Great place to take photographs. Autumn must be beautiful there. After your visit make sure you go to a town near by to enjoy coffee and great hospitality.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright beyondhue

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Lednice Castle

The first historical record of Lednice locality dates from 1222. At that time there stood a Gothic fort with courtyard, which was lent by Czech King Václav I to Austrian nobleman Sigfried Sirotek in 1249.

At the end of the 13th century the Liechtensteins, originally from Styria, became holders of all of Lednice and of nearby Mikulov. They gradually acquired land on both sides of the Moravian-Austrian border. Members of the family most often found fame in military service, during the Renaissance they expanded their estates through economic activity. From the middle of the 15th century members of the family occupied the highest offices in the land. However, the family’s position in Moravia really changed under the brothers Karel, Maximilian, and Gundakar of Liechtenstein. Through marriage Karel and Maximilian acquired the great wealth of the old Moravian dynasty of the Černohorskýs of Boskovice. At that time the brothers, like their father and grandfather, were Lutheran, but they soon converted to Catholicism, thus preparing the ground for their rise in politics. Particularly Karel, who served at the court of Emperor Rudolf II, became hetman of Moravia in 1608, and was later raised to princely status by King Matyas II and awarded the Duchy of Opava.

During the revolt of the Czech nobility he stood on the side of the Habsburgs, and took part in the Battle of White Mountain. After the uprising was defeated in 1620 he systematically acquired property confiscated from some of the rebels, and the Liechtensteins became the wealthiest family in Moravia, rising in status above the Žerotíns. Their enormous land holdings brought them great profits, and eventually allowed them to carry out their grandious building projects here in Lednice.

In the 16th century it was probably Hartmann II of Liechtenstein who had the old medieval water castle torn down and replaced with a Renaissance chateau. At the end of the 17th century the chateau was torn down and a Baroque palace was built, with an extensive formal garden, and a massive riding hall designed by Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach that still stands in almost unaltered form.

In the mid-18th century the chateau was again renovated, and in 1815 its front tracts that had been part of the Baroque chateau were removed.

The chateau as it looks today dates from 1846-1858, when Prince Alois II decided that Vienna was not suitable for entertaining in the summer, and had Lednice rebuilt into a summer palace in the spirit of English Gothic. The hall on the ground floor would serve to entertain the European aristocracy at sumptuous banquets, and was furnished with carved wood ceilings, wooden panelling, and select furniture, surpassing anything of its kind in Europe.

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