Heyden Castle

Haus Heyden is the ruin of a moated castle in Horbach, a northwestern district of Aachen. According to historians, it was probably the most imposing complex of its kind in the Aachen region during the Middle Ages.

Knight Arnold von dem Bongart, son of Gottfried von dem Bongart at Haus Bongart near Weisweiler, had Haus Heyden built at the beginning of the 14th century and made it available to the Count of Jülich as an open house on January 21, 1304. It was the seat of the feudal lords who gave the region north of Aachen around Richterich and Horbach the name Heydener Ländchen in 1361. In 1370, the Bongart family was enfeoffed with the sub-lordship for life. From 1375, it was first owned by the von Gronsfeld family and changed hands in 1406 to the von Merode-Rimburg. The complex remained in their possession until 1452. In that year, Haus Heyden came to the von Schönrade family, whose hereditary property it became in 1500.

From 1547, the von dem Bongart family was again the owner and remained so – at times together with the von Leerode and Hochsteden families – until the 20th century. In 1926, they sold it to General Director Westermann, who leased the buildings from 1929.

The French Revolution ended the feudal lordship in Heydener Ländchen in 1786, but between 1815 and 1848, the old name reappeared when the later municipality of Richterich was referred to as "Gemeinde" or "Bürgermeisterei Heyden".

The two outer baileys of the moated castle were used by an agricultural enterprise until 2001 and have not changed in their layout since the mid-17th century. Of the once wide moats, only a remnant remains today in the north of the complex. The core castle has been left to decay since the end of the Thirty Years' War and has therefore remained almost original as a ruin.

The entire complex was extensively restored by its owner between 2001 and 2003, in compliance with monument protection requirements, and is now used as a private residential complex.