Zons

The archbishop of Cologne moved his Rhine customs post to Zons in 1372, granted it town rights in 1373 and had a fortified town built around it in a single planned campaign, rectangular with walls, towers and a castle at one corner. The customs role ended, the town never grew, and the Rhine later shifted its channel westward leaving Zons a few hundred metres inland, which removed any pressure to develop; the result is a complete fourteenth-century circuit enclosing a village of a few hundred people. The Mühlenturm, a wall tower converted into a windmill in the late Middle Ages, stands on the south-west corner. An open-air theatre uses the castle ruins in summer.

History

Zons appears in the will of Cunibert, Bishop of Cologne, written in the middle of the seventh century but known from an 11th-century copy, and archaeology shows a Merovingian settlement here in the seventh century; the archbishop had an estate in Zons by the beginning of the twelfth century, and the castle was fortified around the middle of the thirteenth. In 1372 Archbishop Friedrich III von Saarwerden moved the Rhine toll from Neuss to Zons, protecting it with walls and moats, and granted it town privileges in 1373; Friedestrom Castle at its centre ran the toll, the planned fortress town was probably finished in the 15th century, and its walls, about 300 metres by 250, carry corner towers including the round Mühlenturm, turned into a windmill in the late Middle Ages (Wikipedia, Zons).

What to look for

• The complete walls - a 1373 planned circuit with towers and gates.
• The windmill tower - a defensive tower converted to a mill in the late Middle Ages.
• The castle ruin - the Friedestrom stronghold at one corner.
• The moved river - the Rhine now several hundred metres away.

When to go

April to October; open-air theatre runs in the castle in summer. The town is tiny and walked in an hour. Weekends bring day visitors from Cologne and Düsseldorf.

Before you go

The town is very small with little inside the walls beyond a few streets. The museum keeps limited hours. Parking is outside the gates.

Nearby

Düsseldorf lies north; Cologne is south.

Key facts