Spanish Officer in Bearskin Statue

<< “Spanish officer”, Dieter von Levetzow, 1989, bronze sculpture >>
"... The legend of the Bear Wall: In the war against the Netherlands the Spaniards occupied the Rees fortress in 1598. Spanish guards stood on the walls day and night. Now a Spanish captain wanted to test the fearlessness of his soldiers.
Wrapped in the fur of a bear, he appeared walking upright and growling loudly on the ramparts at night. At the sight of him, the first soldiers threw away their weapons and fled in fright. Only one showed courage. He aimed, fired, and the bear fell to the ground. On looking it up, the dead captain was found in the fur. ... "
stadt-rees.de/tourismus-freizeit/infomaterial/broschuere-skulpturenrundgang-2020-2023.pdf?cid=fn7

In Rees on the Lower Rhine there is a street called "Der Bär", it is very dreamy and romantic on the outskirts. A long stretch of the old ramparts runs along the left edge of the road and it is haunted there.This is reported: In 1598 the Spaniards occupied the city and guards were posted everywhere on the wall. A captain wanted to check how attentive they were. So he disguised himself as a bear and crept up. He wanted to scare them and most of them ran away, but one of them was brave and shot the supposed bear with a crossbow - and hit! When the guards wanted to ascertain what they had shot there, they were horrified to find that they had killed their captain.Since then it has been haunted on the old wall, and at midnight you should be able to watch the shadow of a huge bear on the wall. The apparition became so famous that a monument was erected in the form of a metal soldier wearing a bearskin. Some also claim that this statue comes alive at midnight !!Source: dominique1993.blogspot.com/2008/04/rees.html

As part of the medieval city walls, the round tower was first mentioned in 1329 as the "Rundeyl" -Rondell-. From the rather small round tower, the current structure with its sloping walls developed over several phases of renovation and expansion up to the end of the 16th century. Around 1520 the tower was expanded and firing chambers were added to the south-west. The northern firing chamber was expanded around 1583 as a barrel vault with two round hole slits. The southern firing chamber was also vaulted at this time; Ceiling hatches were built into both vaults for better ventilation and to extract the powder vapor. After 1758 the French used the roundabout as an ammunition store and built the vaulted casemates that are now accessible on a much higher level.
The extensive repair work on the outer walls reveals the numerous damage caused by flooding and ice on the Rhine, because until 1671 the Rhine flowed in a loop directly towards the roundabout.

(stadt-rees.de/tourismus-freizeit/sehenswuerdheiten/historische-stadtumwehrung/rondell/)