Sinzig Castle

Schloss Sinzig is a Neo-Gothic villa in Sinzig, a town in the Ahrweiler district in northern Rhineland-Palatinate, built from 1856 to 1859. It is located at Barbarossastraße 35 and is now used by the city of Sinzig for representative purposes, and the Sinzig Local History Museum is housed within it.

Until the early 19th century, the remains of a moated castle of the Dukes of Jülich-Berg, already mentioned in 1337 and located outside the Sinzig city fortifications, were visible. The building, converted into a castle between 1569 and 1574, was destroyed in 1689 during the War of the Palatine Succession. Thus, only the ruins of the moat system and a round tower remained.

Between 1854 and 1858, a Neo-Gothic slate quarry stone building was erected according to the plans of architect Vincenz Statz. The park was designed around 1840 based on designs by Peter Joseph Lenné. The Cologne merchant Gustav Bunge built this structure as a summer residence. Bunge had purchased the property in 1850, the year of his marriage to Adele Andreae. His initials still adorn the weather vane on the spire of the so-called castle today.

The history painter Karl Christian Andreae, a brother-in-law of the owner, artfully painted the interior of the castle. Bunge's daughter Johanna (1851–1934), married to the Cologne banker and art patron Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Koenigs, inherited the villa.

In 1954, the city became the owner of this prominent building, which is listed as a monument. After renovation work, the Local History Museum and the City Archive moved into the castle in 1956. The tower room, with its historic 19th-century paintings, houses the wedding room of the Sinzig registry office.