Moated Site of the Bollwerk Farm

A ditch system around a farmstead refers to the remains of a formerly water-filled ditch that once enclosed a property. Along the Lower Rhine, such ditches served many farms and manorial seats for defence or as a boundary.

The official monument register records nothing about the construction date or the exact appearance of the Bollwerk farmstead itself. What survives and is protected today is chiefly the ditch system as a trace in the ground.

Schmalbroich forms the rural western part of present-day Kempen in the Viersen district. For a long time it stood on its own: originally a "Honnschaft" within the Electoral-Cologne district of Kempen, it became a municipality during the French period and in 1859 was even granted its own rural mayoralty (Landbürgermeisterei Schmalbroich). Only on 1 January 1970 was Schmalbroich incorporated into the town of Kempen.

It is characterised as a scattered settlement without a real village centre, made up of the areas of Wall, Klixdorf and Ziegelheide. Its western edge follows the Schleck, which also marks the town boundary with Grefrath.

The area is rich in historic farmsteads and manorial seats. Alongside buildings such as the manor houses Haus Steinfunder and Haus Velde, the Gleumeshof, the Vinnhof and the Weibeshof, the Bollwerk farmstead with its ditch system takes its place in this cultural landscape.