Motte Zoppesmur: An Early Medieval Lowland Castle in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page6 sections
History
Motte Zoppesmur, also known as Motte Zobbesmur and Leysiefen Castle, is an early to high medieval lowland castle in Germany near Leichlingen, in Leysiefen on the left bank of the Wupper. The Bergisch knightly and ministerial family of Zobbe probably built it around 1200, or no later than 1280. A ministerial was a medieval service noble who performed administrative or military duties for a territorial ruler and could rise to knightly status.
The Zobbe family and the castle
The earliest known member of the family was Rodolphus Zobbe, recorded in 1209. Albert Zobbe appears in 1232, while Albrecht Zobbe is mentioned in 1265 and may have been Albert’s son. Another family member, Sibodo de Leysiefen, served as the Bergish landdrost from 1257 to 1266. This office was held by a senior territorial representative of a regional lord.
In 1263, Zobbe de Leginsipe witnessed and sealed a treaty of mutual assistance and friendship between Duke Walram of Limburg and the city of Cologne. The family later adopted the name de Leysiefen. Adolf von Leysieffen, the last known descendant of the Zobbe family, sold the Zobbesmur to Count Adolf of Berg and his wife, Elisabeth of Guelders, in 1280 for 400 Cologne marks. The deed called the property “Leyensiefen Castle.” Adolf of Berg was the ruling count of the County of Berg, a major medieval territory whose counts exercised authority across the Bergisches Land.
Abandonment and local tradition
The 1280 deed is the first and last documentary reference to the castle. After its acquisition, it may have been allowed to decay, ceased to play an important role, and was eventually abandoned. Excavations in the 1930s recovered pottery fragments dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A further test excavation by the local historian Fritz Hinrichs in the 1950s left the castle’s exact construction date undetermined. The site is now registered as an archaeological monument.
The ruins became associated with stories of robbers who used the castle as a hideout and buried treasure guarded by ghosts. Other traditions tell of knights being sawn apart. One legend attributes the decline of the castle to a young nobleman from Leysiefen who attempted to steal the clothes of bathing elves at Heribertsborn. After being struck blind, he supposedly lived in misery at the castle and died in complete poverty, despite owning the castle, its fishery, and its hunting grounds.
Remains
Motte Zoppesmur lies near the hamlet of Leysiefen, about 200 metres from the left bank of the Wupper, at the foot of the Wupperberg. The castle occupied a slope descending toward the river. Its surviving layout includes a large central mound, a defensive ditch, a bank on the valley side, an outer castle court, ground irregularities, masonry fragments, and visible building foundations.
Castle mound and surrounding defenses
The central mound measures about 50 metres across at its base and rises approximately 9 metres above the surrounding ground. A motte is a castle type built around a raised artificial mound, usually carrying a fortified tower or residence. At Zoppesmur, a defensive ditch about 8 metres deep was cut into the uphill slope, and a ring wall enclosed the mound.
A substantial artificial bank strengthened the side facing the valley. Earth dug from the defenses was presumably used in its construction, and its position made a ditch on the Wupper side possible. The arrangement combined the steep terrain with waterlogged ground to create a defensive setting suited to early and high medieval fortification.
Water system and surviving fabric
A stream flowing toward the Wupper formed part of the ditch system and supplied water to the castle’s ditches. Blocking its outflow could preserve marshy ground as an obstacle even during periods of little rainfall. The surviving physical evidence consists of the mound, ditch, bank, fragments of masonry, building foundations, ground disturbances, and the outer castle court.
Although the site is commonly described as a motte or tower-mound castle, its dimensions and arrangement do not closely match that designation. The name Leysiefen refers both to a rocky outcrop or rock face and to a damp, ravine-like valley containing a spring-fed stream, descriptions that correspond to the castle’s setting.
