Neersen Castle

The origins of Schloss Neersen date back to the Middle Ages, when it was a moated castle on a raised area amidst a marshy forest landscape. The bailiwick of Neersen was first documented in 1263 as a fief of the Electorate of Cologne, administered by the Knights of Neersen. In 1371, Neersen Castle itself is mentioned in a document when Heinrich (IV.) von der Neersen was enfeoffed with the bailiwick. The castle served to defend the Niers crossings on the border between the Electorate of Cologne and the Duchy of Jülich. After the male line of the Knights of Neersen died out in 1487, the inheritance passed through marriage to the von Palant family and later to the von Virmond family. Between 1661 and 1669, the medieval moated castle was converted into a three-winged Baroque palace with four corner towers under Adrian Wilhelm von Virmond. Ambrosius Franz von Virmond had the castle further expanded around 1720, but with his death in 1744, the family died out in the male line. After a legal dispute, the castle reverted to the Electorate of Cologne in 1763. Occupied by French revolutionary troops in 1794, it was secularized in 1798. After the French period, the last Cologne electoral bailiff, Josef Lenders, acquired the castle. A fire in 1859 destroyed the castle down to its outer walls.