Hallenburg Castle

Of the formerly two-part castle complex, only the manor house from the 16th century remains today as original building fabric. The building follows the medieval type of the residential tower, but is no longer particularly geared towards defense. The almost square brick building stands on a slightly raised island, surrounded by a moat. Its two storeys rise on a high plinth made of quarry stone. The long side facing the courtyard is divided into five axes by transom windows, while the shorter transverse sides have three axes. The windows are framed by light sandstone surrounds and have blue and white shutters. In the central axis of the courtyard front, in the blind arch of the former drawbridge, is the small round-arched portal, to which a narrow bridge leads over the moat. Above it sits a two-part skylight. The building is topped by a high hip roof with small dormer windows, crowned by two weather vanes. Inside, the building fabric has been significantly reworked and is hardly preserved in its original state.

East of the main building stands a long, two-story brick building, which was erected as an office building according to the plans of Manfred Langenbrick. It stands on the foundation of the former south wing of the outer bailey. This was formerly surrounded by its own moat and dated from the 18th century. While the eastern half-timbered wing was used as a barn, the adjoining southern brick wing, at right angles, was a stable that could be dated to 1793 by wall anchors. Its basket-arched gate arches were already bricked up at the beginning of the 20th century. In the middle of the wing was a ashlar portal with a simple triangular gable above it. Due to war destruction, however, nothing remains of the farm buildings today.

Already in the 13th century, a Jülich ministerial family called themselves after Disternich. They were first mentioned in a document in 1217 with Euerardus de Disternich. His descendant Engelbert von Disternich made his castle available to Count Walram of Jülich on January 7, 1288, as an open house against a payment of 40 Mark of Cologne denarii. In the 14th century, the Rost von Disternich were the sole owners. Perhaps in the same century, the complex came into the possession of the von Bongart family through purchase. After the death of Daem (Adam) von Bongart between 1522 and 1524, his sister Katharina inherited the property and brought it to her husband Adolf von Efferen, called Hall. The name of the castle is derived from his family, who built the present core castle in the 16th century.

In the 17th century, Hallenburg came into co-ownership of the von Colyn family through marriage. Gerhard von Efferen and Johann Georg von Colyn sold the lowland castle in 1670 to Heinrich von Groote. However, certain claims to ownership seem to have remained with the two families, because in 1707 Heinrich von Groote, the Count of Efferen, and Adolf Georg von Colyn were joint owners, with Groote's share making up the lion's share at 4/5. It came to Rudolf Adolf von Geyr zu Schloss Müddersheim through marriage.

In 1719, the Cologne collegiate church of St. Maria im Kapitol acquired the property and enfeoffed the von Wendt family with it. They were followed as feudal lords by the families von Fürstenberg, Waldbott von Bassenheim, and Beissel von Gymnich. After secularization during the Napoleonic era, the Frohn family became owners and kept it until 1857. They were followed as owners by the family of the estate owner Ferdinand Esser and Svenja Hillebrand, daughter of "Castle King" Herbert Hillebrand. Her family had the manor house restored in the early 1970s and an office building erected on the foundations of the outer bailey, which was destroyed in World War II.