Burg Geinegge

Burg Geinegge was a lowland castle on an island in the Geinegge stream, now part of Hamm-Bockum-Hövel. The site lay north-east of the present sports hall, where a small playing field now stands. Water from the Geinegge once powered a mill whose miller’s house was pulled down around 1959. The stream also fed other mills and marked the boundary between the bishoprics of Münster and the county of Mark. The castle belonged to the knights of Geinegge, first named in 1170. Their home changed hands several times: in 1339 it was exchanged for land in Amecke, and by 1500 it passed to the Frydag family through marriage. The lords of Geinegge were caught up in the Isenberger feuds of the 13th century, when nearby Nienbrügge was destroyed after the murder of Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne. Today no visible traces remain of the island stronghold. The flat sports field and the roadside inn at Römerstraße 4 mark the old mill zone. A field called Ruenfeld once stretched north of the site, and old tracks still lead from the former castle area toward Kötterberg and Bockum. The Geinegge itself now carries less water than in the 12th century, when it held abundant fish.