Burg Efferen, Medieval castle in Efferen, Germany

Burg Efferen is a former moated castle whose oldest structure is a square gate tower of field-fired brick, topped since the 1769 rebuild with a baroque onion dome and a weather vane bearing the Fürstenberg coat of arms. Gothic arches frame the gateway, with slots for the drawbridge chain still visible, and two trachyte-framed windows per floor above. A two-storey manor house with a hipped roof and seven-axis facade adjoins the tower.

The convent of St. Maria im Kapitol, founded around 696 by Plektrudis, widow of Pippin the Middle, held the land in Efferen. At the end of the 14th century the Cologne Overstolzen family is documented as the first castle lords; in 1391/93 they fortified the site with the Jülich counts against the claims of Archbishop Friedrich III von Saarwerden, and the gate tower dates from this period. In 1769 Carl Franz von Bourscheidt had master builder Christian Birkenhus rebuild the castle on the old foundations as a Baroque complex. Since 1894 it has belonged to the Koch family, today Schmitt.

The castle gave its name to the family Overstolz von Efferen, later simply von Efferen, and many surrounding streets carry the names of former owners such as Bourscheidt, Orsbeck and Fürstenberg. The gate tower's weather vane bears the coat of arms of the Freiherren von Fürstenberg, the last noble owners.

The castle stands at the eastern edge of the Duffesbach, along Bachstraße leading toward Cologne; the Esserstraße points straight at the centre of the manor house, giving a long sightline. The moat was filled in 1961 when Bachstraße was relaid and is now only hinted at by a shallow dip toward the road. The bridge over the filled moat survives, and the name of builder Christian Birkenhus is carved on a stone at the former bridge.

The gate tower's passage runs through Gothic arches where the guides for the drawbridge chain can still be seen at the sides. Above the second floor, corbels project on three sides, once carrying oriels or machicolations. The bridge over the filled-in moat also survives.