Castle Gleuel

The Gleuel Castle In the eponymous district of the city of Hürth is one of the oldest water castles in the medieval Cologne region surrounding the city of Cologne.
In late Frankish times, in a document dated June 4, 898, the king of the Lotharingian realm, Zwentibold, donated a farm in Gleuel along with 12 other farms and the church, as well as properties in Selstena to the Essen monastery. This indicates both the great age of the castle yard and the church location. The castle and the place then came into the possession of the cathedral chapter in the mid-13th century. The vassal Gerard of Gleuele fought in 1260 with the citizens of Cologne against Archbishop Konrad of Hochstaden. The mayor Heinrich von Gluwel signed the inheritance land union of the archbishopric as a territorial lord in 1463. Göddert von Gleuel led the Cologne Funken as a cavalry captain in the subsequent Burgundian War in 1474. After the line died out in 1550, the Schall von Bell and in 1630 Johann von Cölln from the Cologne council family became owners. He built the current two-winged structure in 1632 from the originally four-winged complex. A gable stone indicates the date. In 1726, the estate came back to the cathedral chapter through an inheritance purchase. This had the consequence that the estate came into civil hands during the secularization in the French period in 1802, initially into those of Heinrich Felten, the later mayor of Hürth. In 1969, the municipality took over the estate and made the park accessible to the public. However, no use was found for the castle. Finally, an architect took over the castle, who restored it monumentally in 1976/77 and converted the outbuildings into a residential complex. He lives there himself and also maintains his office and a small vintage car museum there. Therefore, the castle is generally not accessible. However, the host opens his house for the concert series Erftkreiszyklus of the Hürth music seminar and other cultural events.

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