Wolfsburg Castle

The name of the former moated castle derives from the knightly family of Wolff von Rheindorf. This family established its ancestral seat here in the 13th century. The knight Godart von Rheindorf is first mentioned as the owner of the castle in a document from 1334. The family's coat of arms features a wolf striding from left to right.

In the 14th century, the old ancestral castle of the Wolff von Rheindorf family came into the possession of Johannes von Buschfeld through marriage, and in 1477, through the marriage of his daughter Margarethe, it passed to Arnold von Gymnich. The castle remained in the possession of this family for many years until the lineage died out. A wrought-iron weathervane on the complex's tower, bearing the year 1597, testifies to them, showing a dragon holding the coat of arms of the von Gymnich family. Through the marriage of the widow of the last Gymnich, the property passed to the Barons von Mirbach.

From 1807, the building was leased. After the noble owners no longer inhabited the castle, the tenants moved into the actual castle. The outer bailey with the Gymnicher Hof was abandoned.

The oldest part of the complex is the central tower. This dates back to the 13th century. Residential and defensive towers (so-called mottes) are typical elements of Rhenish castle construction in the 12th and 13th centuries and often formed the center of medieval noble residences. The noble residence consists of basalt stone masonry and stood on a square footprint in the middle of a rectangular courtyard. This was surrounded by the rubble stone wall, still preserved on two sides today, which probably carried a battlement.

In the 17th century, an L-shaped extension was added to the formerly freestanding tower. The former moats, over which a bridge on the north side led into the castle area, disappeared during the construction of the flood dike in the 1920s.