Burg Dürboslar, Moated castle in Dürboslar, Aldenhoven, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Burg Dürboslar is a two-part brick water castle in Dürboslar, a village of Aldenhoven. It consists of a western main castle with a manor house and an eastern outer bailey with farm buildings and a gatehouse. The manor house, rebuilt in 1841, incorporates a round tower from 1685 and a square tower with 17th-century origins. The moat still holds water on the west and south sides.

Dürboslar is first documented in 1478, when the Jülich open house had become a fief of the Cologne archbishopric and Johann von Boissler sold it to Johann von Linzenich. Through Johann's granddaughter Maria it passed in 1608 to Johann Hoen von Cartils; their descendants Johann Wilhelm and Franz Arnold had most of the complex rebuilt in the second half of the 17th century. In 1841 the Wolff-Metternich family replaced the old manor house, and the bailey was rebuilt in 1852.

The name Dürboslar means "a clearing in the thorn bushes," first recorded in 898 when King Zwentibold of Lotharingia gave estates there to the Essen convent. The castle itself appears in documents in 1478 as a Jülich open house that had become a fief of the Cologne archbishopric. A stone tablet above the manor entrance bears the alliance coat of arms of Hoen von Cartils and Metternich zu Müllenark with the inscription ANNO 1685.

The site is easiest to reach by car, as the B56 passes nearby and parking spaces are available in the area. For visitors without a car, regional buses serve the village, though you will need to walk the final distance to the fortress.

The castle is not intact: the manor house was rebuilt in 1841 and the outer bailey between 1651 and 1656, and the gatehouse lost its defensive oriel above the entrance at the end of World War II. The stone plaque over the manor entrance still records ANNO 1685 and the names Franz Arnold Hoen von Cartils and Maria Amelia von Metternich.