Burg Vörden

Burg Vörden once stood in the flat countryside of Lower Saxony, near the village of Vörden. Built in the late 14th century, it was the youngest stronghold of the Bishopric of Osnabrück. The castle controlled a road laid out earlier by Bishop Benno II, linking Bramsche and Damme on the way to Bremen. Its main task was to guard the north-western border of the bishopric against claims from the Bishopric of Münster. By 1376 the fortress had passed to the Counts of Tecklenburg, who had to be driven out before it returned to the bishops. The castle grew in stages. Bishop Otto IV of Hoya added a manor house and strengthened the walls in the early 15th century. Later bishops, including Konrad IV of Rietberg, enlarged the defences. During the Thirty Years War the Swedes took the region and gave the castle to Gustav Gustavson, an illegitimate son of the Swedish king. He turned it into a residence-fortress until 1651, when Swedish troops left. After the walls were levelled in 1685, the place served as an administrative seat. A new main wing was built in the early 18th century, but the castle burned down in 1842. The church then built its parish house on the old foundations. Today the site shows traces of its past. The Niels-Stensen-Haus, a medieval building from about 1400, still stands as part of the farm buildings. The former Amtshaus, rebuilt in the early 1700s, now serves as the parish house. Above the vanished north wing rises the Catholic parish church of St. Paulus Apostel. The surrounding village keeps the memory of the fortress alive, its earthworks and moats long gone yet still shaping the landscape.