Upper Castle Kuchenheim

The Obere Burg (Upper Castle) in Euskirchen's Kuchenheim district was a lowland castle from the 14th century. Of it, the three-story corner tower from the 15th century, as well as wall foundations, a historic bridge foundation, and the moat, are still preserved. Today, in the immediate vicinity of the castle's remains, is the "Museum Guesthouse Mottenburg" of the LVR-Industriemuseum Euskirchen – Tuchfabrik Müller.

On the grounds of the LVR-Industriemuseum are fragments of the "Obere Burg," which was mentioned in 1259 as "castrum Cugenheim." Archaeological excavation finds suggest that a so-called motte existed here even earlier, namely in the 11th/12th century: a motte-and-bailey castle, a wooden defensive tower on an artificial mound – surrounded by a moat.
In the Middle Ages, the castle – now built of quarry stone – with its border location near the Duchy of Jülich, had important strategic significance. The castle complex originally consisted – like many moated castles in the Rhineland from this period – of two parts separated by a moat. During an excavation by the Rhenish Office for Archaeological Heritage Preservation in 2004, several wall sections were uncovered, showing the tower as part of a masonry manor house. The presumed tower on the left side of the front was not verifiable. In front of the house facade ran a moat about nine meters wide and up to 2.40 meters deep, which was used as a "dump" for a long time. Numerous finds were recovered from it: shards of tableware from the 14th to 18th centuries, animal bones, small bronze parts, window glass, leather, and shells from the Atlantic. The finds suggest a high standard of living at the small Rhenish noble seat. A stone bridge led over the moat to the manor house, of which three pillars are preserved. These are based on mighty oak timbers of a predecessor bridge. The oldest wood dates the bridge construction to 1442, two slightly younger timbers (felling year around 1470) probably belong to a repair phase.
The castle property was a Cologne fief until 1755 and changed hands between various noble families; since 1755, the property passed into bourgeois hands. In 2001, the Landschaftsverband Rheinland acquired the site to carry out extensive excavations and to build a museum guesthouse for the neighboring "Rhenish Industrial Museum" (today: LVR-Industriemuseum).