Burg Konradsheim

Burg Konradsheim stands in Erftstadt’s Lechenich district, two kilometres north of the Landesburg Lechenich. It is one of the few surviving late medieval water-burghs, its moats fed by the Rotbach stream. The core building was raised in 1337 by Ritter Arnold von Buschfeld, who sold the ‘open-house’ right to Archbishop Walram of Jülich for 400 gulden. By 1354 the archbishop’s successor had forced Arnold’s heir to strip the battlements down to window-sill level, turning the fortress into a defensible but unassuming residence.

The castle passed through several noble families, including the von Loë who added a three-corbel late-Gothic sandstone oriel on the west wall in 1548. After centuries of neglect, the Landschaftsverband Rheinland began repairs in 1933, rebuilding the missing north wing in 1963–64 and reconstructing the collapsed south-east tower in 1971–72. Inside, the former desolate interiors now house a ground-floor festival hall, an upper knights’ hall and a vaulted cellar, all restored for modern events.

Visitors find the moated main house surrounded by a golf course laid out on former farmland. The medieval half-timbered steward’s house, once a granary and later a stable, now serves as the golf club’s clubhouse and restaurant. The inner courtyard and outer farmyard regularly host weddings, trade fairs and the autumn ‘Sahnestücke’ market, while the 19th-century pump house and stables recall the estate’s working past.