Tecklenburg Castle

Tecklenburg Castle , or simply the Tecklenburg, is a ruined castle and venue for the Tecklenburg Open-Air Theatre in the eponymous town of Tecklenburg in the county of Steinfurt in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was once the seat of the rulers of the County of Tecklenburg.

The castle was probably built around 1100 by the Dutch Count of Zutphen to protect the important trade route from Lübeck via Bremen and Münster to Cologne, in order to be able to control this narrow and easily visible place and to be able to demand customs duties. Later, to secure the access roads to Tecklenburg, some of the lesser nobility were engaged as vassals to secure this route, including lords from the House of Marck, and the estates of Kieseling, Horne, Meeseburg, Kronenburg, Hülshoff and Wondahl.

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