Ludgerusburg, 17th-century castle in Coesfeld, Germany

Ludgerusburg was a square citadel begun in 1655 outside Coesfeld's Viehtor, its ground plan roughly the size of the town then. Each of the four corner bastions carried a cavalier, and a broad water-filled moat, four ravelins and demi-lunes in the ditch covered the dead angles. A lower fausse-braie wall with a rear walkway shielded the curtain walls and flanks. Only the gatehouse ruin and one barrel-vaulted casemate survive.

Hessian troops still occupied Coesfeld in 1651, and Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard von Galen secured their departure on 1 July 1652. He then developed the town as a princely residence, and from 1655 built the Ludgerusburg citadel north of the Viehtor; 600 soldiers began work on 28 August 1655. After the death of his successor Maximilian Heinrich in 1688, the cathedral chapter had the complex largely demolished.

The fortress takes its name from Saint Ludger, the first bishop of the Munster Diocese, showing how deeply religion shaped the region's architecture. The name links the structure to local spiritual history and reminds visitors of how closely religious and political power were connected.

The gatehouse ruin stands at the entrance to the Stadtpark on Osterwicker Straße; behind the Stadthalle, between the baths and the cinema, one of three barrel-vaulted casemates that served as wine cellars survives. The Citadellenweg, inaugurated on 6 September 2025, circles the former citadel area with 14 information panels.

The St. Johannes Ravelin, a surviving outwork north of the Coesfeld–Münster railway, is protected as a Bodendenkmal, and the adjacent street is named Am Ravelin. A neighbouring biotope is a remnant of the former moat. The Fürstenwiesen meadows by the Berkel can be flooded at high water to protect the town centre.