Autelbas Castle: A Lowland Fortified Castle in Belgium
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Belgium
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page6 sections
History
Autelbas Castle is a ruined lowland fortress in Belgium, located at Autelbas-Barnich within the city of Arlon. The present remains stand on the site of a thirteenth-century fortified castle that served as the seat of a seigneurial lordship, a territorial jurisdiction governed and financed by a lord, within the Duchy of Luxembourg.
The medieval lordship
In 1371, the lordship extended through much of the valley of the Autelbas stream, from Autelbas eastward to the stream’s mouth, and across part of the upper Eisch valley, from Grass and Kahler in the south to north of Steinfort. Its lord, Huart II of Autel, opposed the annexation of the Duchy of Luxembourg by Antoine of Burgundy. Antoine had obtained the duchy through his marriage in 1409 to Elisabeth of Görlitz, while Huart II served as a seneschal, diplomat to the kings of Bohemia, and civil and military governor of Luxembourg.
In 1412, Burgundian forces seized and destroyed the earlier castle because of this opposition. A new castle was built on its ruins in 1432. The Dautel d’Autelbas family occupied the rebuilt fortress until its extinction in the late sixteenth century, after which the lordship passed through several noble families.
From seigneurial estate to protected ruin
In 1802, bankruptcy forced Baron Hinderer to sell the castle and its lands at public auction. The lawyer Tinant purchased the entire property and operated the castle farm. Because he had no descendants, tenant farmers occupied the castle from the middle of the nineteenth century. During the First World War, the former seigneurial estate was divided and sold in lots to villagers. The castle itself has been uninhabited since 1966 and later passed through several owners.
A serious fire in August 1983 destroyed the surviving wooden parts, including the roof and floors, and severely damaged the building. Archaeological excavations took place in 1992 under the direction of the Walloon Region. Stabilization and restoration work has continued since 1998 to preserve the ruin and restore selected parts. The castle received legal protection as a monument on 4 November 1976 and is recognized as protected heritage of Wallonia under designation 81001-CLT-0004-01.
Remains
Fortress layout and surviving walls
Autelbas Castle stands a few dozen metres north of the Autelbas stream, a tributary of the Eisch, in the southwestern part of modern Autelbas-Barnich. The surviving curtain wall, a defensive wall forming part of a castle’s outer enclosure, made up the eastern wing of a complex arranged as a parallelepiped, a three-dimensional form with six parallelogram-shaped faces. This eastern wing was shorter than the western wing. The visible ruin is principally the fifteenth-century castle built over the earlier thirteenth-century fortress.
Altered buildings and present condition
Over the centuries, repeated modifications, improvements, repairs, and partial reconstructions altered the fortress and its associated buildings and grounds. These works affected the farm, gardens, and oven as well as the castle itself. The 1983 fire removed all wooden elements that had survived until then. The remaining walls are unstable, and access to the interior is prohibited. Stabilization and restoration have focused on preserving the surviving masonry and restoring certain sections of the ruin.
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