Alteburg, Essen

As the largest and oldest castle complex in Essen, Alteburg is a Carolingian ring fortification south of Essen-Werden on the left bank of the Ruhr River in North Rhine-Westphalia. A few hundred meters further north on the Pastoratsberg there was a similar complex, the Herrenburg, in the 9th to 11th centuries.

A document from Werden dated 1.5.801 mentions a castle stream and proves that there was already a castle at that time and thus the Alteburg must have been built before the foundation of the monastery of Werden by the saint and missionary Liudger in 799, since a construction time of more than 2 years is assumed.

The main castle, located in the west of the Alteburg, measures about 80,000 square meters. In addition, there is a kind of outer castle in the area of the street An der Alteburg, which was about four hectares in size. In the meantime, hardly anything can be seen of its ramparts, and excavations have never been carried out there.

The Essen city archaeologist Detlef Hopp suspects "that the Alteburg was developed into a fortification around the eighth century. The use of mortar in the main castle can be linked to the Franks. However, it cannot be said with certainty whether the castle was originally Frankish or was only later taken over by the Franks."

Today, the ruin is a listed monument and most of it is no longer open to the public.