Siegburg

Siegburg grew beneath the Michaelsberg near the rivers Sieg and Agger. Archbishop Anno II of Cologne founded a Benedictine monastery and abbey on the hill in 1064, and the settlement below was recorded as a town in 1182. Its potters became renowned for their stoneware, especially the pitchers made in Siegburg; the town prospered in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

In 1403 a dispute over the abbey's protection led to war between the monastery and townspeople. Citizens joined the future Duke Adolf of Berg in besieging the abbey, which was damaged but not captured; the town itself was set alight. The two sides eventually agreed that the lords of Berg would retain the rights of protection. The abbey was dissolved during the secularization of 1803.