Bergheim

Bergheim lies on the Erft west of Cologne, along the old road towards Aachen. First recorded in 1028, the estate was given to Kornelimünster Abbey. The counts of Jülich later held its protection and built a castle, around which a town developed. Bergheim received town rights around 1300 and became a market, toll station and mint of the dukes of Jülich.

The dukes used Bergheim as a convenient meeting place for political negotiations with neighbouring rulers during the fifteenth century. In 1542 war between the duke and Emperor Charles V brought extensive destruction, from which the town recovered only slowly. During the French period it became the centre of a canton in the Roer department; after the Napoleonic Wars it passed to Prussia.