Hus Aren: A Medieval Lowland Castle near Bückeburg
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- 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 page13 sections
History
Hus Aren is a medieval lowland castle site near Bückeburg, Germany, whose fortification originated in the twelfth century and was associated with the Lords of Arnheim. Also called Burg Arnheim and formerly Arnhem, its name means “the house of the Arnheim family.” The castle occupied a position thought to have controlled an eastward trade route from Minden, possibly the Hellweg through present-day Petzen.
The Arnheim family and the castle’s early history
In the mid-twelfth century, the Arnheim noble family was based at Alte Bückeburg, a separate medieval castle site near Obernkirchen. Hermann von Arnheim, born around 1150 and deceased in 1213 or 1216, held Hus Aren as a fief from the Ascanian Dietrich von Werben, son of Albrecht I. A fief was a territorial right granted by a superior lord in return for service, so Hermann’s control of the castle formed part of a feudal relationship.
Archaeological evidence places the origin of the fortification in the twelfth century, although it is uncertain whether it already existed when Hermann arrived in the area around 1180. In that year the castle passed to Obernkirchen Abbey, a religious institution governed by an abbot or abbess, and Hermann had to leave. He moved into the lowlands of Bückeburg, where the settlement of Nordholz later developed around 1600.
Schaumburg control and destruction
The castle appears in documents from 1255 and 1257. A record from 1273 preserves Duke Johann of Brunswick-Lüneburg’s assurance to the bishop of Minden that he held no rights over it. Around the middle of the thirteenth century, the Counts of Schaumburg acquired rights in Hus Aren and displaced the Arnheim family. The family disappears from the written record after 1300 and is thought to have been absorbed into Stadthagen’s urban upper class.
In 1244, the Counts of Schaumburg and the bishop of Minden agreed to build a castle jointly. This agreement may have referred to the nearby Nygenburg rather than Hus Aren. A dispute between the bishop and the counts over Arnheim Castle at the end of the thirteenth century ended with an agreement to raze it. The castle was destroyed in 1302.
Excavation and changing interpretations
The Schaumburg-Lippe Historical, Regional, and Antiquarian Society began investigations in 1880. Reinhard Weiß, a Bückeburg medical councillor, excavated the mound and forecourt for five days in 1892. In 1905, the Bückeburg local historian Friedrich Mosebach continued the work and prepared plans showing possible outer works interpreted as service or economic courtyards. Franz Engel, director of the Bückeburg State Archives, led further excavations between 1950 and 1955. The early investigations were inadequately documented, and their numerous finds were transferred to Bückeburg Museum and the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover.
Further investigations began around 2006 and, from 2009, were directed by the archaeological service of Schaumburg Landscape with assistance from the Hus Aren Working Group of regional local historians. Since 2011, relief mapping and other non-destructive surveys have examined the mound and its surroundings. A geomagnetic survey in 2011 covered about 250 by 400 metres and identified indications of a castle, an outer bailey, possible former gardens, and other buried features. Near-surface drilling in February 2013 examined additional anomalies. The second castle site identified by Mosebach in 1905 near Nordholz, which he interpreted as the Nygenburg of historical tradition, could not be confirmed by investigations begun in 2011.
Legend and later interpretation
A tradition concerning Hus Aren was recorded around 1750 by Holzapfel, preacher at the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Petzen, from stories told by older local inhabitants. First published in 1751, the tale incorrectly identified a sculpted tympanum high on the church tower as Hermann and Demut von Arnheim kneeling beside a sick person. It also interpreted another relief as a count holding a lance and sacrificial animal.
The first relief actually represents the ancient Christian physician saints Cosmas and Damian, while the second shows a man with a winged spear and a dog or hare. The church at Petzen is first documented in 1181, within the period when Hus Aren existed. This chronological connection helped create the later association between the church’s reliefs and the castle legend.
Remains
The former castle lies in the waterlogged lowland of the Bückeburg Aue, about 3.5 kilometres northwest of Bückeburg Palace and approximately 400 metres east of Nordholz. The area is used mainly as pasture, and the mound stands in a meadow beside a field track. The site is arranged around a low, oval castle mound with an encircling ditch and indications of an outer bailey and other buried features.
Central mound and defenses
Mound and ditches
The oval mound measures approximately 60 by 80 metres and rises about 0.5 metres above the surrounding ground. A small group of trees, including a prominent solitary tree, grows on it. Relief mapping shows that the mound rises about one metre above the bottom of the surrounding ditch. Two higher areas divide the mound’s surface. The ditch is approximately 0.5 metres deep and between 5 and 10 metres wide, while a further outer ring ditch can be faintly discerned. Parts of the main ditch are especially clear in outline during spring flooding.
Walls and buildings
Excavations in 1892 and during the 1950s exposed sections of the ring wall and wall foundations. The sandstone masonry rested on a pile-supported construction. Some remains were interpreted as belonging to an earlier hexagonal tower. Excavators also found the foundations of a small building with a hearth and another building measuring 5 by 8 metres. Slate fragments indicate roofing material among the surviving archaeological evidence.
Outer bailey and buried features
The 2011 geomagnetic survey detected the ground plans of a castle and an outer bailey within the surveyed area. An outer bailey was a space outside the principal fortified enclosure used for additional buildings and activities. The survey also identified two parallel linear features on the mound, interpreted as remnants of fortifications, together with anomalies suggesting former watercourses, stone remains, ovens, and slag deposits. A polygonal feature may represent former garden installations.
Archaeological finds
Pottery and household objects
Approximately 720 medieval pottery fragments have been found at Hus Aren and in its surroundings, including a complete jug. Finds made in 1995 came from a meadow about 150 metres southwest of the mound. The oldest pottery places the site in the middle of the twelfth century. The assemblage includes globular cooking pots, jugs, and pitchers, as well as Siegburg stoneware, a hard-fired medieval ceramic made in the Rhineland town of Siegburg. Several clay spindle whorls, weighted objects used with hand spindles to spin fibers into thread, came from the domestic or household area.
Weapons and equipment
Iron finds include spurs, horseshoes, and bridle fittings, along with an axe, keys, and other fittings. Weapon finds include metal projectile points that cannot be securely identified as arrowheads or crossbow bolts. A winged spearhead measures 36 centimetres in total length. Several sword blades, up to 25 centimetres long, were almost completely corroded. Taken together, the finds have the character of a thirteenth-century castle complex rather than a rural settlement.
The former castle site was presented to the public in 2008, and earlier excavation finds have been newly displayed at Bückeburg Museum since 2011.
