and had the castle expanded as a residence. He and his successors frequently moved between their homes in Blomberg and Brake. The town and castle were fortified all around, and the castle was additionally secured by a rampart and moat. Steep slopes offered natural protection to the west and south, while to the east and north the city was surrounded by walls, moats, ramparts, and even thorn hedges. In addition, there were six defensive towers as well as Zwinger and Landwehr in front of the gates. The Lower Gate and parts of the city wall of the city fortifications are still preserved today. In Blomberg there was a certain division into upper and lower town, mostly the craftsmen lived upstairs and the farmers downstairs. Upper and lower town had separate dogs and even the municipal inns were distributed in exact numbers between upper and lower town. Children from the upper town were taught by the cantor and those from the lower town by the sexton. As everywhere in the cities, Blomberg's economy was determined by the guild system. Almost all handicraft businesses in the Blomberg Basin were concentrated in the city, only millers, blacksmiths, wheel makers, cobblers and patch cutters could also settle in the countryside. Destruction, reconstruction and reformation Blomberg's fortifications did not protect the city from total destruction in the course of the Soest feud. In 1447, the Archbishop of Cologne besieged the city and on June 14 had his mercenaries almost completely burn it to the ground. The city was rebuilt from 1468 with the support of Bernhard VII. A momentous event took place during this time. A woman named Alheyd Pustekoke stole 45 consecrated wafers from the Martini church. Fearing discovery, she threw them into the well in the Seligen Winkel. But the hosts did not sink, Alheyd was convicted of theft and burned at the stake as punishment. Soon after, word spread that the fountain had miraculous healing powers and Blomberg became a place of pilgrimage. News of this even reached the Vatican so the cardinals in Rome encouraged the building of a chapel over the fountain. 1468 got the Augustinian canons in the Möllenbeck monastery gave this church and at the same time received permission to build a monastery. The church was expanded into a late Gothic hall church in 1473 and is today the Protestant-Reformed town parish church. The donations were so substantial