Kerpen Castle

Kerpen Castle is located in the middle of the town of Illingen (Saar) in the valley of the Ill river. Only parts of it remain.

The town of Illingen was first mentioned in a document in 893. However, the origins of Kerpen Water Castle are somewhat obscure. The castle is first documented in 1359: Dietrich V von Kerpen declares in a document that the castle in "Ildingen" is ancient property of the Counts of Saarwerden, from whom he holds it as a fief. However, it must be assumed that the castle was built earlier. His father, Dietrich IV von Kerpen, came to the Saarland through his marriage to Geneta von Warsberg. The ancestral seat of the Kerpen family was on the castle of the same name north of Daun in the Eifel. Geneta was married first to Arnold von Sierck. Therefore, it can be assumed that the castle already existed at that time. In the 16th century, the feudal sovereignty of the castle changed to the Counts of Saarbrücken and Illingen became a free imperial lordship. Around 1620, the castle reached the highest level of its expansion with the construction of an outer bailey. After the end of the Thirty Years' War, during which the castle was destroyed, Johann Daniel von Kerpen had the complex restored. In 1677, the castle and the town of Illingen were set on fire by French troops, which led to a lengthy reconstruction well into the 18th century. In 1748, Baron Lothar Franz von Kerpen (due to his functions as an official of the Electorate of Trier and as a knight captain of the Lower Rhenish canton of the Imperial Knighthood) moved his residence to Koblenz, so that from this point on, an official headed the castle administration. Baron Franz Georg von Kerpen lost his sovereign rights as a territorial lord in 1794 due to the invasion of French revolutionary troops, but received the castle back as private property in 1806 under Napoleon. He died in 1825 without male descendants. After his daughters sold the castle to mining councillor Leopold Sello in 1830, the complex rapidly fell into disrepair, as it served as a quarry for the surrounding area. At the beginning of the 20th century, the municipality of Illingen acquired the complex and initiated initial renovation measures. In 1951, the remaining round tower of the main castle was renovated and has since been one of the landmarks of Illingen. The restored outer bailey with the pentagonal tower became part of a hotel-restaurant built in 1999.

In the late 18th century, the dominion of the Barons of Kerpen comprised the villages of Illingen, Gennweiler, Merchweiler, Göttelborn, and Wemmetsweiler (as a closed territory), as well as Lixingen and Ruhlingen in Lorraine.