Schallmauer Castle (Berrenrath)

Schallmauer Castle is a Baroque manor house on the northern edge of the Hürth district of Berrenrath. It was built in 1714 and was one of the few buildings to survive the demolition of the former village of Aldenrath.

The name of Schallmauer Castle goes back to the former owners of the property, the noble family Schall von Bell, who owned moorland here and resided at Gleuel Castle. The name is thus composed of "Schall" and "Moor" to "Schallmoor", later "Schallmauer". In the middle of the 16th century, Friedrich von Sachsen-Lauenburg, canon in Cologne and Bremen, had a small country castle built for the Cologne canons at the site of today's Schallmauer Castle. In 1673, however, the castle was destroyed by Dutch troops in the Dutch War against Louis XIV. As property of the Cologne Cathedral Chapter, the ruin was handed over to the Cologne canons von Geyr, who bequeathed it to their nephew Rudolf Adolf von Geyr.

Rudolf Adolf von Geyr had the still-preserved, simply designed manor house built in 1714. It is a three-story plastered building in a simple Baroque style; the master builder was probably the then-Bonn castle builder.

Around 1930, Schallmauer Castle came into the possession of the lignite mining company Roddergrube AG (later Rheinbraun), along with the hamlet of Aldenrath, located about 500 meters northwest, consisting of 12 houses with 73 inhabitants. The village was encroached upon by the Berrenrath opencast mine and eventually demolished. Before the sale of the lands and buildings to the Roddergrube, the hamlet consisted of 12 houses with 73 inhabitants and Aldenrath Castle, located slightly further up the valley, which was also demolished in 1936. Schallmauer Castle, however, remained standing and thus came into the direct vicinity of the relocated village of Berrenrath, which was moved in 1959 to the area of the former hamlet of Aldenrath, which had by then been mined out by the Gotteshülfe mine. In 1978, the castle became private property.