Castle Norderburg in Dornum
Around 1400, there were three castles at Dornum: the Wester, Oster and Norder castle. The Westerburg was destroyed during the „Sächsischen Fehde“ (Saxonian feud) in 1514 and not rebuilt. The Osterburg, later Beningaburg, now lodges a hotel. The Norderburg today presents itself as a baroque castle surrounded by moats which was restored some years ago, and where a school is located today.
All three castles originally belonged to the chief family Kankena. The old Norderburg has a connection with the name of the "quad Foelke". She was the wife of chief Ocko tom Brok and has her nickname "quad" (bad) from the stories pople told about her and about the castle. The legend collection of the East Friesian poet Wilhelmine Siefkes reads: They also report that the daughter of Foelke, Okka, the wife of Lütet von Nesse, had connections to the pirates, and when her husband lamented that in presence of her mother, she advised him to kill the disloyal woman. Being very angry, Lütet did it and then met with his father Hero to Dornum. But Foelke marched with an army to the castle, attacked it and took revenge for her daughter: in the court-yard she spread out two sheets of Leyden, on the brown one Hero, on the green one Lütet had to kneel down, and both were killed.
In 1514, the Norderburg was nearly totally destroyed. Under the reign of the family of Closter coming from the Dutch province Drenthe (and which married into the family Kankena), in the 17th and 18th century the present castle surrounded by moats was built in Dutch baroque style, the rests of the ancient Renaissance building can be still found beneath the walls.Through the gatehouse from 1678 with the tower casque from 1707 you reach the pre-castle. The wide place ending in the baroque castle avenue lined with old trees, is surrounded by low buildings, which in former times, were the working quarters and the stables of the castle.
Over a bridge guarded by shield-holding, furious lions, you'll reach the castle portal, above which there is a monumental tympanum. In the centre, Pallas Athene is standing, the Greek goddess of wisdom and art of war. The court-yard, framed by the four winged castle, is very attractive in its uniformity and intimacy. Portals from different periods and styles, medallions made of sandstone and two stone chained-up guard-dogs are all worth a view. In the „knights hall“ of the castle, there is a ceiling painting showing Demeter, the goddess of nature, in a perspective painting. On the wall, there are two baroque paintings by an unknown artist. One of them shows Mauritz von Closter (1594-1673) with four sons, the other one his wife Almuth von Fridag (1604-1650) and three daughters.
Following the custom on family portraits of that time, the youngest child that only lived a few days, was also presented on the deathbed. At the time the painting was created, people did not use to wear East Friesian costumes but adapted to fashion coming fro the Netherlands. Fine lace collars decorate the festive clothing. The children wear adult clothing and the little boys, according to the customs, dresses. The quality of the paintings might not be high, but they show in an illustrative manner how a noble family of the Baroque wanted to present itself to the spectator.
Address
Norderburg
Schlossstr. 3
26553 Dornum
Guided tour registrations
Kurverwaltung Dornum
Tel 0 49 33 / 9 18 80
E-Mail info@dornum.de
