Münchhausen Castle (Adendorf)

The castle is located in the westernmost part of the municipality of Wachtberg on the Swist and was originally designed as a moated castle with water ditches. It was first mentioned in a document in the Prüm Urbar of 893. The building fabric (keep and gate tower) is partly made of tuff stones.

At the time of its first mention, the castle belonged to the Imperial Abbey of Prüm. After it came into the possession of the Counts of Are-Hochstaden, it was transferred to Electoral Cologne in 1246 through the Hochstaden Donation. It was used as a bulwark and at times as a toll station on the Coronation Road. In 1525, Bartholomäus von der Leyen from the noble family of von der Leyen bought Münchhausen Castle with the sheep farm.

Of the original, water-fortified circular complex from the 12th/13th century, only the three-story palas with a rounded outer wall, two towers, the keep, and the gate tower remain. The basalt foundations and cast concrete blocks were dismantled from a passing Roman aqueduct and reused. The keep and gate tower were extended by one story at the end of the 13th century. In the outer wall of the gate tower, the walled-up pointed arch of a former passage is visible. Between the palas and the gate tower stands a two-story, plastered residential building from the 18th century on the old wall.

Today, the castle is an equestrian center and is also used as a restaurant.