Frankenberg Castle (Aachen)

From 1961 until August 2010 the former water castle housed a museum that documented the history of the Aachen area, from its Stone Age flint mines, through the Roman thermal bath period, up to the Industrial Revolution.

Historically, the castle was the seat of a Vogt, which was a Holy Roman Empire-era officer responsible for administrative or judicial oversight of the surrounding community.

Edmund’s grandfather Arnold I von Merode is considered to be behind the construction of Frankenberg Castle, which was originally intended to be a fortified residence outside the former fortifications of Aachen.

After the building's destruction in World War II and its temporary use as a labor office, planning for the establishment of a regional museum at the complex began September 1961, even before its eventual final reconstruction was finished in 1971.

[1] The belief was long held that Charlemagne ordered the castle to be built (discussed below in the Fastrada Legend section), but research has established that the structure was constructed during the 13th century.

When Friedrich Josef Antonius von Coels had the castle again renovated between 1834 and 1838, new elements were added that adhered to the prevailing tastes of the time, but which were not part of the original structure.

For instance, the towers were reconstructed with new roofs that featured merlons, and the previously partially open main yard was completed enclosed by massive battlements and a wall-walk.

Among other things, the over-sized merlons were removed from the Bergfried, and the castle’s main yard was returned to its former location so that the formerly blocked fountain could again be made prominent.

On the east side of the compound, the three-story residential structure contains a decorative facade, with the lower levels being made up of rough stone blocks, while the upper floors consist of brick masonry.

Under the building’s eaves on the east-facing façade, there are small, transverse windows, with the exception of directly above the main door, where a bretèche sits just under the roof.

Finally, the Archbishop Turpin von Reims discovered that Fastrada was still connected to the emperor through the ring, and so he snatched it from her hand and hurled it into the lake of Frankenberg Castle.