Rüdenburg Castle

The Rüdenburg, also known as Alte Grafenburg or simply Alte Burg, is a castle ruin near Arnsberg in the Hochsauerlandkreis in North Rhine-Westphalia. The hilltop castle was almost certainly built between 1050 and 1062 by Count Bernhard II of Werl. The name of the old castle serves to distinguish it from the Grafenburg (approx. 2 km as the crow flies) on the later Arnsberg Castle Hill, separated by the Ruhr valley.

According to older excavation reports, a ringfort stood at this location during Saxon and Carolingian times. Recent excavations, however, deny a prehistoric or early historical origin.

The mountain fortress on the Römberg (303 m) served to secure the territories recently acquired by the Counts of Werl in the area of what would later become Arnsberg, and to control the long-distance route leading from the Rhine via Lüdenscheid/Balve to Arnsberg and further to the eastern Hellweg. Even under the rule of Frederick the Quarrelsome (1092–1124), the castle still belonged to the possessions of the Counts of Werl-Arnsberg.

However, Frederick lost the castle to some of his enemies through an ambush. It is uncertain whether this was related to the conflict between Emperor Henry IV and Lothar of Supplinburg, or whether it involved the Archbishop of Cologne. Likewise, the thesis that the castle was subsequently divided between the Counts of Arnsberg and a Cologne vassal from the Rüdenberg family is not fully substantiated. It can only be assumed that the weakening of the Counts of Arnsberg after the extinction of the older line led to the entire complex passing into the possession of the noble lords of Rüdenberg. It is certain, however, that in 1132 a Herimannus de Rüdenberg was in possession of the castle and, like his successors, served both the Archbishopric of Cologne and the Counts of Arnsberg. The good relations with the Arnsberg Counts were expressed in the marriage of Count Gottfried II to Agnes von Rüdenberg, a daughter of Hermann II von Rüdenberg († 1246).

With Konrad II von Rüdenberg († around 1261), the reputation and influence of the Rüdenberg family reached their peak. After Konrad's death, the inheritance was divided among his three sons, forming three lines of the Rüdenberg family, one of which remained in possession of the castle. This marked the beginning of the political and economic decline of this family. The last documented Rüdenberger was Hermann von Rüdenberg in a document from the Archbishop of Cologne from 1390. Already before that (around 1365), the Alte Burg itself, with its associated lands and rights, had been sold to Wedinghausen Abbey. In the 17th century, the remains of the castle were used as a quarry, among other things, for the construction of the Obereimer manor. Numerous demolitions were carried out during this process.

Around 1929, the remains of the castle were uncovered and archaeologically investigated. From 1988, the castle was restored for four years. The castle expert Joachim Zeune was commissioned by the Arnsberg Heimatbund to re-develop the castle and to correct previous reconstruction errors based on archaeological investigations.