Qualla: Oberes Schloss (Siegen)

Oberes Schloss (Siegen): Introduction

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frank Behnsen, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the 307-metre Siegberg, a flat-topped knob above the river Sieg, the Counts of Nassau and the Archbishops of Cologne once shared a castle wall like quarrelling neighbours sharing a fence. They split the building right down the middle: the rooms facing the Sieg river belonged to the archbishop and were called the Bischofshaus; the rooms facing the smaller river Weiss belonged to the count and were called the Grafenhaus. A single courtyard, two gates, one tower - and from this awkward thirteenth-century timeshare grew the dynasty that would one day produce William the Silent, the kings of the Netherlands, and the British house of Orange.

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Image: Frank Behnsen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Oberes Schloss (Siegen): A Castle Divided

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tanja Schulte, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Obere Schloss is first mentioned in a Liege document of 2 September 1259 as 'burch inde der stad zen Sigin' - the castle and town at Siegen. A second document, from 1261, references an earlier event: in 1224 Henry II, Count of Nassau, and Archbishop Engelbert II of Berg had d...

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Image: Tanja Schulte | CC BY-SA 3.0

Oberes Schloss (Siegen): The Family That Became the Orange

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Matthäus Merian, Public domain. From the Obere Schloss the Nassau-Siegen line projected itself outward across early-modern Europe. Through marriage and inheritance the family acquired the French principality of Orange in the sixteenth century, and one of its sons - William, born in 1533 at the Nassau castle of ...

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Image: Matthäus Merian | Public domain

Oberes Schloss (Siegen): Rubens in the Rubens Hall

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frank Behnsen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Siegen has a particular claim on Peter Paul Rubens: the painter was born here in 1577, while his family was living briefly in the town in exile from Antwerp. The castle museum honours that connection in its Rubens Hall, which holds nine works by the master, including the loaned R...

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Image: Frank Behnsen | CC BY-SA 3.0

Oberes Schloss (Siegen): A Museum and a Mine

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frank Behnsen, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Siegerlandmuseum, founded in the castle to 'present the essence of the Siegerland homeland in terms of history, culture and folklore', began with just three exhibition rooms in 1905. By 1929 it had grown to thirty-five rooms and now occupies 1,500 square metres of the buildin...

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Image: Frank Behnsen | CC BY-SA 3.0