Burg Gürzenich

Burg Gürzenich once stood in the village of Gürzenich, now part of Düren in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was built as a lowland castle on the eastern edge of the Duchy of Jülich near lands belonging to the Archbishopric of Cologne. Only fragments of its walls remain, built into a 19th-century farmyard that has been protected since 1986. The castle belonged to the powerful Gürzenich family, first recorded in 1143 when Adolf von Gürzenich witnessed a charter for the Archbishop of Cologne. In 1232 the knights of Bachem attacked the castle, killing all the inhabitants and ending the family line. By the 14th century the von Echtz family held the castle, and in 1404 half passed to Johann Schellart, court master to Duke Rainald of Jülich. The other half belonged to the von Linzenichs and later passed to Dietrich von Beusdael, who sold it around 1530 to the Schellarts, reuniting the estate. A new building was erected at the same time. Today the site is marked by parts of the old moat and scattered masonry in the Kreuder farmyard. Sandstone fragments, including a lintel dated 1555, have been reused in the Mona-Lisa Tower in Schillingspark. An 1801–1814 map by Jean Joseph Tranchot still shows the castle’s layout.