History Liebieg Castle

The Niederburg (lower castle) is today situated in the middle of Gondorf, one of the two neighbourhoods of Kobern-Gondorf, and its history coincides with the first appearance of the Trier ministerialis family "de Contrave" (Gondorf).
The first person we know of to live in this castle was the knight Engelbertus de Contrave (1158-1160).

This family of knights lived in a fortified residential tower-cum-watchtower, which at that time was at the lower end of the village of Gondorf and was surrounded by a moat.

The remains of a Roman ruler's residence with mosaic floors, which even today are still hidden from view 5-6m down in the earth of the castle grounds, suggest a larger and very old estate in Gondorf.

One of the oldest castles on the Moselle, the Niederburg was associated with the name of the family of knights "Phillipp Mul von Ulmen" from the Eifel region for almost three centuries.

When the French revolutionary armies occupied the Rhine lands in 1794/95, the Niederburg suffered the same fate as many of the other castles and was sacked. The French later sold the ruins together with the castle grounds to the Koblenz merchant Anton Hasslacher. In 1830 the merchant Simon Clemens, also a citizen of Koblenz, then bought the entire castle complex from him and left it to his son, the banker Johann Peter Clemens.

The years following 1795 saw the new owner have the Cologne master church builder Vinzens Stolp convert the castle complex into a country residence for himself and his family.

In 1879 Angelika Clemens (1848-1919), Johann Peter Clemens' daughter, married the baron and imperial councillor Theodor von Liebieg (1840-1891) from Reichenberg in Bohemia.

Through this union the magnificently restored Niederburg castle with all its property passed into the possession of this wealthy Bohemian and Austrian house of "von Liebieg", which is today still associated with the name "Liebieg Castle".

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