Petersburg Castle

An old painting in the castle of the Princes Sayn-Wittgenstein in Berleburg shows Neumagen as it looked around the year 1730. The center of the village is dominated by 4 mighty high towers, which rise above several buildings in the middle of a quadrangle. This is the Petersburg, which was also called the lower castle. In the previous century, it was referred to as Konstantinsburg. The upper castle, called Helenenburg, was located on the ruins of the old Roman fortifications; its center was near the present parish church and the town hall. The Petersburg was built at the end of the 13th century by one of the most famous Archbishops of Trier, Boemund, and named after the patron saint of the dioceses, the archdiocese, and the community, Saint Peter. The castle and the name of its builder are mentioned in the Gesta Treverorum - published by Johann Hugo Wyttenbach and Fr. Jos. Müller 1836/39 - in essence as follows: Boemund erected fortresses and castles throughout the diocese, below Trier the castle in Neumagen. The first feudal lord of the castle is mentioned in a document from 10.2.1331 as the Vogt of Hunolstein, Johann Spieß. On 19.9.1333, Gerhard von Blankenheim declared himself feudal lord for life. He renounced the jurisdiction associated with the office. However, he granted asylum to the people belonging to Petersburg in times of need. In 1355, after the death of Gerhard von Blankenheim, Archbishop Boemund II granted the castle to Vogt Nikolaus von Hunolstein for life. From the Historia Treverensis diplomica et pragmatica, published by Hontheim in 1750, it can be read about the further feudal lords of the castle that since the beginning of the rule of the Counts of Sayn-Wittgenstein in Neumagen (mid-16th century), the Archbishops of Trier regularly appointed them as feudal lords. However, jurisdiction over the people of the St. Peter's Court (Vogtei) continued to be exercised in the name of the Archbishop by 7 aldermen. 4 aldermen were from Neumagen, 3 from Dhron. The most prominent guest at Petersburg on March 9, 1512, was Emperor Maximilian. He was a guest of Count Salentin von Isenburg with his retinue. Of the Petersburg, only a part of a tower remains today at Römerstraße 78 (Haus Pendelin). Of the actual castle house, a cellar with two barrel vaults still stands in the former Dewald pharmacy (Römerstraße 56). The castle ring was about 5 meters wide and 88 meters deep. The depiction of the castle as a quadrangle and the location of the still existing tower suggest that it stood below the present Römerstraße.