Cloppenburg Castle

Cloppenburg Castle is the ruin of a medieval fortress in Cloppenburg (Burgstr. 9) in the district of Cloppenburg in Lower Saxony.

Around 1297, Count Otto III of Tecklenburg had the Cloppenburg fortification built in the immediate vicinity of the settlement of Krapendorf, in a Soeste lowland on a farm in Hemesburen (Hemmelsbühren), to secure regional sovereignty. The first documented mention occurred during a land exchange on January 5, 1297.

After the bishops of Münster and Osnabrück and the cities of Münster and Osnabrück formed an alliance on June 18, 1393, the "Cloppenburg" was conquered in the same year. It came into the possession of Bishop Otto IV of Hoya of Münster on December 28, 1396, after Bishop Dietrich of Osnabrück had ceded his share of Cloppenburg.

On October 25, 1400, Count Nikolaus II of Tecklenburg renounced the lordship, office, and Cloppenburg Castle. Bishop Otto of Münster subsequently had Cloppenburg expanded and extended.

On August 24, 1716, the castle buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire of Cloppenburg. In 1805, the remaining castle tower was blown up, and an administrative building was erected partly on the foundations of the old castle buildings. In 1909, the district court was built on the former castle grounds. On June 20, 1960, the district office was inaugurated on the former castle grounds. In 1984, the foundations of the round castle tower were restored in the city park.