The "An der Vinnbrück" Redoubt

The background was the Limburg Succession dispute (1283–1288): after the early death of his wife, King Rudolf I had transferred her Limburg fief for life to Rainald I of Guelders. Count Adolf V of Berg, the rightful heir, felt passed over and allied himself with Duke John of Brabant; the conflict grew into a struggle against the Cologne archbishop Siegfried of Westerburg. To assure each other of mutual support, the archbishop and the count of Guelders met with their retinues at the Vinnbrück redoubt on 16 August 1284 and concluded their treaty there. Four years later, on 5 June 1288, Siegfried of Westerburg and his allies lost the decisive Battle of Worringen. He was taken prisoner and held at Schloss Burg on the Wupper against high ransom demands; the citizens of Cologne broke away from the archbishop, and later archbishops henceforth resided outside Cologne, among other places in Bonn and Brühl. Partners from Vinnbrück were also captured at Worringen, among them the knight Gottfried of Hüls and Count Dietrich III of Moers.

The redoubt was never finished as a territorial castle in the original sense. Excavations indicate a small wooden fort inside; a berfrois (defensive tower) and a mill with a fish pond are documented. Climate change and low water levels brought the mill to a standstill around 1400 and the fish farming around 1550. After 1600 the ditches dried up and the ramparts flattened — today only traces and ground depressions of the complex can be made out, alongside the Flöthbach and the landwehr ditch. The Orbroich hamlet borders it to the south, while the area to the north belongs to Tönisberg. The historic meeting is commemorated by a small shelter of fieldstone bricks with a ceramic relief of the treaty scene, designed by the Tönisberg artist Lutz Weynans and standing on a side path to the B9 on Tönisberg land. The relief shows Archbishop Siegfried of Westerburg (a black cross on a white field), Count Rainald of Guelders (a golden lion with red claws on a blue field), the knight Gottfried of Hüls (a red water lily on a white field) and Count Dietrich III of Moers (a black bar on a golden field), with the silhouette of the Tönisberg heights and the tents of the redoubt in the background.