Jülich Citadel

The @Kreis Düren could also stick to it and not unnecessarily open new highlights if they already exist.

The Jülich Citadel was once part of the Jülich Fortress and is the city's most important surviving monument and one of the best-preserved fortresses in the bastion system in Germany. It was built in the years after 1545 as part of an ideal city of the Renaissance and is the oldest citadel north of the Alps. Its master builder was Alessandro Pasqualini. It presents itself today as a four-pointed bastioned fortress with a circumference of about 1200 meters. The citadel is surrounded by a ten meter deep and 20 to 30 meter wide moat, some of which contains water, from the bottom of which it rises. Overall, the system towers above its surroundings (height of the street) by about five to ten meters. For some years now, access from the city side has been via the Pasqualini Bridge, across the moat, through a poster. The inner courtyard can also be reached from the north through such a tunnel; only the ditch is here not through a bridge, but through

Photos from left to right
Dennis Stratmann, Green Metropolis e.V.
Paul Meixner, wasserburgen-route.de
Paul Meixner, wasserburgen-route.deJulich. People have been settling in the fertile lowlands of the Rur for 2000 years.Jülich was founded around the birth of Christ as a street town at the junction of the Roman long-distance trade route from Cologne to the Atlantic coast via the Rur. It was also the Romans who built the first fortifications in the 3rd century. A fort to protect against invasions of Germanic tribes. After the end of the Roman Empire, Jülich retained its central importance as the center of the Franconian Jülich-Gau and seat of the Counts of Jülich. They fortified their city with a medieval city wall at the beginning of the 14th century. Of the three city gates, the west-facing Rurtor is still preserved. Better known under the name "Witches Tower" it is now the symbol of the city.The citadel, a 90,000 square meter fortress complex with a ducal palace, is the most important fortress in the style of the Italian High Renaissance north of the Alps. Due to the special construction of the gun platforms, the bastions, any point in front of the walls can be fired at with firearms. Today the citadel houses a high school and the citadel museum. The castle with an exhibition on the history of the facility and the Jülich region as well as the extensively restored fortress with the ramparts and casemates can be visited.At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the French under Napoleon continued to expand the Jülich Fortress. The Napoleonic bridgehead was built on the Rur. Fifty years later, the Jülich Fortress was militarily obsolete. In October 1859, the Prussian government abolished Jülich's status as a fortress, and the bastions and ramparts of the town's fortifications were blown up and gradually demolished. However, the citadel and bridgehead were preserved.During World War II, the city was largely destroyed in an air raid. After 1945, Jülich was rebuilt according to plans by René von Schöfer. The reconstruction made clear references to the cityscape of the 16th century. The Pasqualinian floor plan reappeared and new buildings quoted architectural ideas of the Renaissance. Today, the citadel and bridge head, together with the witch tower and the Renaissance town plan from the 16th century, form a unique fortress ensemble (tourismus.kreis-dueren.de/a-zitadelle-juelich).