History (2)
Middle Ages
Ruins of the Imperial Palace in Kaiserswerth
Rear view of the Suitbertus Basilica seen from the banks of the Rhine
Between 695 and 700, the monk Suitbert founded a Benedictine monastery on an island off the Rhine, a Werth, later Kaiserswerth, which was destroyed again 88 years later. This Rhine island, on which the manorial farm Rinthausen was located, had been given to the Anglo-Saxon Suibertus by the Frankish mayor of the palace Pippin the Middle. The royal court mentioned was later gradually converted into a castle. In addition, this was one of the oldest Rhine crossings, with a good view of the Rhine. This was and is a favorable strategic location for a fortress.
After the destruction of the Benedictine monastery, the "Kaiserswerth Abbey" was founded. The King of the East Frankish Empire, Ludwig III. placed the monastery under his protection in 877 and freed its churches and goods from normal jurisdiction as well as from all customs and public charges. In 1045, the imperial palace in Kaiserswerth, which was well known in the Middle Ages, was founded by the Salian emperor Henry III. During the "coup d'état of Kaiserswerth" in 1062, the Cologne archbishop Anno II of Cologne kidnapped the still underage German king Henry IV from this imperial palace. Through this royal robbery, Anno gained regency over the Holy Roman Empire until Henry IV came of age.
In 1078, the church of St. George was built near the Kaiserswerth menhir (destroyed in 1689).
In 1145, Kaiserswerth became an imperial city when King Conrad III took the inhabitants under his protection.
Source: Wikipedia