Lauvenburg Castle

The first documented mention of Lauvenburg appeared in 1356, when a Henz von Loewenberg was recorded in a sheriff's protocol, naming himself after his residence. At that time, the moated castle served as an open house for the Duke of Jülich and was temporarily inhabited by an unnamed robber knight. Until 1603, the Lords of Dreiborn were the owners of the property, after which ownership passed to the Dukes of Jülich, represented by the bailiff of Nideggen. In 1723, Johann Heinrich Cramer von Clauspruch is named as the owner. From 1760 to 1794, the castle belonged to the French emigrant Count Latour. Subsequently, the physician Johann Wilhelm Krüppel leased the castle from the French domain administration and finally acquired it in 1808. Krüppel later sold the property to the Cologne broker Winand Guffani, who sold it to the farmer Bergerhausen in 1860 for 40,000 thalers. Bergerhausen's heirs, the Wasserburger family, still own Lauvenburg Castle today. After a fire in 1868, the outer bailey was extensively renovated. In 1981, it was entered into the monument list of the city of Zülpich.