Architecture of Burg Uda – Ground Plan, Round Tower & Brick Building

One tower is all that stands of Burg Uda. To understand the complex it must therefore be reconstructed from two sources: from the surviving fabric, and from the excavation record that documented the ground plan of the demolished parts. Together the two give a surprisingly clear picture – and a building type that was remarkable on the Lower Rhine of the early fourteenth century.

The castle was a quadrangular castle of the type known in German as a Kastellburg: a regular, almost square complex with corner towers, surrounded by a water-filled moat. This type does not follow the contours of a site but a geometric design. It presupposes that the builder had means, planning and time.

The ground plan

Four corner towers, two round and two rectangular

Ground plan of the main castle, schematic. Drawn to scale for the complex itself (side length 30 m); the moat is shown compressed. The positions of the three demolished towers are recorded, their diameters are not – they are drawn dashed and without dimensions. Own drawing after the figures given by Brocker and EBIDAT.

The main castle was a square complex of roughly 30 by 30 metres. Four towers stood at the corners – and not four of a kind: two round and two rectangular, set diagonally opposite one another. This combination is not accidental but a deliberate pattern found at several Lower Rhine sites.

The gatehouse lay on the east side, facing the castle village. The approach ran from the village past the Oedt mill complex and through the outer bailey into the main castle, which stood in the middle of the marshy Niers lowland. Little is known about the outer bailey: it is built over today, and excavation there is impossible.

The inner buildings were ranged along the east, north and west sides. The south side had no range but was closed by a wall about eight metres high with a walkway on top. The curtain wall carried a wall-walk resting on arcading.

The wall thicknesses speak for themselves: about 1.50 metres for the buildings, up to 3.00 metres for the towers. The moat was 9 to 11 metres wide, the outer berm 5 to 6 metres. The result was a very compact, massive complex – and in the marshy Niers lowland almost impregnable. That the settlement of Oedt was destroyed in 1416 while the castle held was no matter of luck.

The surviving round tower

Five storeys, a fireplace and a frieze

Section through the round tower, schematic. Storey heights are divided evenly because the actual heights of the individual levels are not recorded. The overall height follows the figure given by EBIDAT (23 m); see the table of differing figures below. Own drawing.

What survives is the south-eastern round tower, with an outer diameter of 9.49 metres. Originally it had five storeys. The position of the entrance is notable: it was not at ground level but on the third storey, on the west side facing the courtyard. A tower that can only be entered from a raised connection is, in an emergency, an independent place of last retreat.

The base storey was closed by a domed vault. The second storey has a Gothic ribbed vault. The fourth storey was clearly a living floor: it held an elaborate fireplace with a moulded jamb of trachyte, and a latrine oriel. Above, a pointed-arch frieze on projecting corbels closes the wall.

Since the restoration begun in 2009 a staircase leads up to the viewing platform. The 123 steps counted today are therefore not medieval but part of the modern access.

Brick and trachyte

In terms of building history, the significance of Burg Uda lies in its material. It is among the earliest brick buildings on the Lower Rhine. While natural stone dominated in the Rhineland of the early fourteenth century, the builders here committed consistently to fired brick.

That was an obvious decision with lasting consequences. The flat Lower Rhine lowlands yield no building stone but clay in abundance. Anyone building here could transport stone over long distances or fire bricks on site. The second solution went on to give the region its characteristic face for centuries.

Even so, it could not be done entirely without dressed stone. For the parts that mattered – corbels, the fireplace jamb – trachyte was used, a volcanic rock from the Siebengebirge shipped down the Rhine. Brick for the mass, trachyte for precision and display: this distribution of materials shows where effort was invested in the building.

When was it built?

Two statements about the building date exist, and they complement one another well. Dendrochronological analysis – dating by the growth rings of the timber used – gives a construction period of about 1308 to 1311. The local history gives „around 1300" as the point at which Dietrich Luf III built the castle and moved there, having sold his previous residence along with the county of Hülchrath.

One point matters for understanding the date 1313: the documentary mention of that year does not refer to the start of building. It occurs in connection with an extension to the structure, and it records that Dietrich Luf III surrendered his castle to the Archbishop of Cologne as a fief. 1313 is therefore the year of first mention, not the year of construction.

There may have been a predecessor: the complex could have grown out of an advocacy (Vogtei) of the counts of Kessel, who acted as advocates of Gladbach Abbey in Oedt during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Differing figures in the literature

For several measurements, different figures exist. We give them openly with attribution rather than silently selecting one version:

Feature	Figure A	Figure B
Side length of the main castle	about 30 m (Brocker; EBIDAT)	about 35 m (older account)
Height of the round tower	23 m (EBIDAT)	21 m (older account)
Storeys of the round tower	originally five (EBIDAT)	five to six; six levels accessible today
Wall thickness of the towers	up to 3.00 m (Brocker)	about 2 m (older account)
Material of the fireplace jamb	trachyte (EBIDAT)	tuff (older account)

Column A is supported by two independent specialist sources. We therefore use it for the drawings, without suppressing the differing values. Clarification would be possible through the excavation records and a current survey of the fabric.

Not yet documented

• Diameters of the three demolished corner towers
• Heights of the individual tower storeys
• Extent and layout of the outer bailey
• Origin and format of the bricks used
• Original roof form of the round tower

Sources and status

The basis is Karl-Heinz Brocker, Geschichte des alten Amtes und späteren Gemeinde Oedt (History of the former Amt and later municipality of Oedt), published by the Heimatverein Oedt e.V. (PDF) together with EBIDAT, the castle database of the European Castles Institute, entry for Burg Uda in Oedt (ebidat.de). The drawings are our own schematic representations after the dimensions given there; they are no substitute for a survey of the fabric. Points marked as open are expressly not documented.

Last updated: August 2026

Read on

Building, finds and builder in context

Archaeology

The excavations

Campaigns around 1960 and 1988, the oak pile foundation and over 100 ceramic vessels.

To the finds

Person

Dietrich Luf III of Cleves

The builder: an indebted heir, seller of Hülchrath, lord of Kervenheim and Oedt.

To the person

Lordship

The Amt Oedt

From an advocacy of the counts of Kessel to a territorial castle of Cologne.

To the lordship

Architecture of the moated castle