Castle Burg

The Castle Burg is located on a mountain directly above the Wupper in Solingen district Burg.

It is now considered a landmark of the Bergisches Land, which can be completely overlooked from the castle.

At the same time Castle Burg is one of the largest castles in West Germany and the largest reconstructed castle in North Rhine-Westphalia.

History

In the High Middle Ages, it was one of four centers of the county of Berg and served as the main residence of the Counts of Berg. It lost this position only in 1380 under Wilhelm II von Berg to Dusseldorf. Schloss Burg was later used as a hunting lodge by the ruling family, who had meanwhile been elevated to the ducal estate, before Schloss Benrath was built at the gates of Düsseldorf in the 1660s. As a result of the Thirty Years’ War dragged and used until 1807 only as the domicile of a Bergisch waiter and judge, the plant decayed more and more and became a ruin. In 1887 an association for the preservation of the castle was founded, which soon made its reconstruction its club goal.

Through support from several sources up to the German imperial house reconstruction work could be financed that lasted from 1890 to 1914. The present owners of the site, which was only listed as a historical monument in 1984, are the cities of Solingen, Remscheid and Wuppertal. The Schlossbauverein Burg an der Wupper acts as operator.

Castle Burg is now used for a variety of cultural purposes, including as a museum, venue and memorial. For example, it is possible to visit the complex from the inside, where you can see all sorts of interesting testimonies from the past.

Solingen

Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and, with a population of approx. 165000 it is, after Wuppertal the second largest city in the Bergisches Land. It is a member of the regional authority of the Rhineland.

Solingen is called the “City of Blades”, since it has long been renowned for the manufacturing of fine swords, knives, scissors and razors made by famous firms such as Dreiturm, DOVO, Wüsthof, Zwilling J. A. Henckels, Böker, Clauberg, Eickhorn, Carl Schmidt Sohn, and numerous other manufacturers. In Medieval times, the swordsmiths of Solingen coined the town’s image, which is preserved to this date. In the latter part of the 17th century, a group of swordsmiths from Solingen broke their guild oaths by taking their sword-making secrets with them to Shotley Bridge, County Durham in England.

 

Landmarks of the city

The most famous landmarks of the city include the reconstructed Castle Burg, the former residence of the ruling family of Berg, the highest railway bridge in Germany (107m), the Müngstener bridge, and the historic city centers of Gräfrath and Burg with their half-timbered and slate houses in Bergisch Style.