Nehren Castle: A Medieval Moated Residence in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.9
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
History
Nehren Castle was a medieval moated castle in Nehren, Germany, probably built in the thirteenth century by the Lords of Nehren as their ancestral seat. A moated castle is a fortified residence surrounded by a water-filled or wet defensive ditch. The castle stood on a flat peninsula at the eastern edge of the upper part of the municipality, in the field known as Weihergarten.
The castle was mentioned at the end of the thirteenth century in connection with an expansion. Its surviving archaeological remains include an approximately square castle mound, the raised earthwork on which the castle or a related building stood. The mound measures about 28 metres in diameter and was surrounded by an 11-metre-wide moat.
An archaeological excavation in 1951 uncovered the foundations of the former castle complex. At the centre of the mound, the foundations of a rectangular building extend more than one metre down to the underlying shale. The building may have been a stone house or a residential tower, a fortified tower intended partly or primarily for habitation.
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