House Winnenthal
The Winnenthal House , also known as Winnenthal Castle and Winnenthal Castle , is a castle complex between Unterbirten and Alpen-Veen in the Birten district of Xanten . Probably built in the first half of the 14th century, it is one of the oldest preserved water systems on the Lower Rhine and was of particular strategic importance because it was due to the Landwehr , which is still recognizable today , which marks the border between the Klever and the KurkölnerArea marked. The complex experienced its heyday in the 15th century, when it was rebuilt and expanded by Duke Adolf II of Kleve , whose son Johann and his wife Elisabeth of Burgundy lived there. Partly demolished in the first half of the 19th century, the remaining buildings were subsequently used for agricultural purposes. After severe damage in the Second World War , the manor house was in ruins for a long time before it was rebuilt in the 1980s and is now used as a senior citizens' residence together with the outer bailey .
Residents and owners
When the Winnenthal house was first mentioned in a document in the 14th century, it was owned by the Klever Counts, who succeeded the Jülich dukes as owners. From the end of the 14th century at the latest, it served as the Klevian official residence; In 1417 the bailiff Lambert Pape was mentioned in a document. For a long time, Winnenthal served as a widow's seat next to Monterberg Castle . The marriage contract of Duke Adolf von Kleve from 1399 made it a Wittum for his first wife Agnes , a daughter of the German king Ruprecht von der Pfalz . On June 24, 1420, the Duke of Kleve established it as the widow's seat of his second wife, Maria of Burgundy . From 1440, Adolf's eldest son Johann lived in the fortified complex. For him and his wife Elisabeth of Burgundy, the Duke Winnenthal had them expanded and rebuilt before he ceded them on May 11, 1448.
In the first half of the 16th century the complex came to the von Wylich family , because Duke Johann III. gave it in 1532 as a fief to Theodorich von Wylich. Winnenthal remained in the possession of this family as a fief for more than 150 years. In April 1533 the Klevische hereditary steward Dietrich (Derick) von Wylich was enfeoffed with the property. His son Vincent followed him as a tenant in 1570. After numerous disputes with Kurköln about Winnenthal, Kleve finally received jurisdiction over the area around the middle of the 16th century. When the Wylich property was divided between the brothers Dietrich and Adolph Hermann in 1605, the latter received Winnenthal, among others, and was enfeoffed with it on January 23 of the same year. He was followed in November 1648 by his son Dietrich Karl from his marriage to Katharina von Palant . Dietrich Karl's granddaughter Adriane Alexandrine Hermine Franziska brought the system into her marriage to Count Johann Arnold Edmund von Leerodt in 1701 . After his death, their son Hermann Franz followed on May 28, 1717 as a tenant. A née Baroness von Schilder, married Countess von Leerodt, was the last member of this family to be enfeoffed with Winnenthal. After her death in October 1789, several changes of ownership followed before the plant came to Christian Friedrich von Raesfeld . His descendant, Charlotte Friederike Antoinette von Raesfeld, married Freiherr Karl Kasimir von Reichmeister in 1809. He increased the property through purchases from 590 to 1350 acres .
On August 26, 1839, the von Laak family acquired the property, had part of the existing buildings demolished and in 1844 sold it to Johann Anton Schmitz auf der Hübsch, who from then on used it for agricultural purposes. His family was subsequently called Schmitz-Winnenthal. Ruth Underberg , whose mother came from this family, grew up at Haus Winnenthal. In the 1980s, the facility changed hands again: first it was acquired by the Kerpen entrepreneur Herbert Hillebrand and finally an investor who had it converted into a senior citizens' residence. Haus Winnenthal is still used as such today, among other things. The Burg Winnenthal retirement home is the central location of the novel Mädelsabend (2018) by Anne Gesthuysen .
Building history
The roots of the Winnenthal house can be found in a fortified complex that was probably built by the Jülich counts in the first half of the 14th century. In 1377 a “new hall” was mentioned in a document, which suggests the expansion of an existing facility. After Winnenthal came into the possession of the Kleve dukes, Duke Adolf had the meanwhile run-down building extensively renovated in the 1440s and expanded into a two-part moated castle. It consisted of a three-wing main castle and the southwest located Vorburg with two massive round towers at the corners. The two building complexes were separated from each other by a moat. In 1446 , a castle chapel consecrated to St. Anthony was founded in the eastern part of the inner castle.
Around 1600, the von Wylich family redesigned the main castle into a baroque style palace . The northern corner tower of the “castri nostri Winnendail” was given a curved, onion-crowned hood . In the course of the work, the moat between the outer and core of the castle was probably filled in and two two-story buildings were erected, which connected the two building complexes. The existing building after the radical changes is passed down through two drawings by Jan de Beijer from 1746. According to this, the Winnenthal House was a spacious square in the 18th century, the corners of which were oriented towards the four cardinal points.
Before 1822, Karl Kasimir von Reichmeister built a three-winged farmyard in the shape of a horseshoe southwest of the palace. A partial demolition took place under the von Laak family around 1840, during which the eastern part of the core castle including the east tower and castle chapel was laid down. Further structural changes followed in order to make the outer bailey usable for agricultural purposes.
During the Second World War, Haus Winnenthal suffered severe destruction in 1945, after which the remaining northwest wing of the main castle only existed as a ruin . Only its outer walls were still preserved. When it was rebuilt, the lost, slate- covered baroque hood of the north tower was not restored, but replaced by the current pyramid roof.
description
The Winnenthal house consists of a bailey, a three-wing complex of modern economic buildings and the manor house. The moat that once surrounded the complex on all sides is only preserved today on the northwest side.
Mansion
Today's mansion is actually just the remaining north-east wing of the former core castle . The two-storey wing has six window axes and is covered by a hipped roof with dormers . At its north corner there is a mighty square tower with three storeys, which are closed off by a pan-covered pyramid roof. The masonry of the two buildings is made of brick that is plastered white . In the past, the brick walls were exposed and only had plaster at the corners of the towers, which imitated a boss block. On the south corner of the former core castle stood a massive, two-storey round tower , the foundations of which, like the courtyard-side wall of the south-east wing, were still preserved at the end of the 19th century.
In the interior of the main castle, the main hall in the north-west wing was particularly noteworthy from an art-historical point of view . Until it was destroyed in 1945, it had a lavishly decorated stucco ceiling with large, female figures, putti and festoons . Allegorical paintings in the corners represented the four seasons. The central painting in the middle of the ceiling depicted the human being in the form of a naked child as the center of creation, surrounded by richly dressed, luscious female figures. The ceiling was the only Baroque decoration of its kind on the Lower Rhine , along with the one in the orangery of Benrath Palace .
Outer bailey and farm yard
The three-winged bailey made of brick has a horseshoe shape and opens to the northeast towards the former core bailey. Your basic building planning results from renovations in the 19th century in order to make the building usable for an agricultural operation. The oldest structure can be found in the two round towers on the south and west corners. They have four floors and are closed by a polygonal roof. However, the buildings did not get their current appearance until recently, when they were redesigned for use as a retirement home. Despite reservations regarding monument preservation , the three outer bailey wings were built over in a modern way and a third floor was added. As a result of the numerous renovations, all of the original building fabric inside was lost over time.
The economic buildings of the castle-like farm yard are located southwest of the outer bailey and date from the first quarter of the 19th century. The massive, unplastered gate tower with a round arched gate passage stands out from the three-wing, single-storey tracts with white plaster . Its three floors rise on a square floor plan and are closed off by a flat tent roof with a closing, onion-crowned clock tower .
literature
- Paul Clemen (Ed.): The art monuments of the district of Moers . L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1892 ( The Art Monuments of the Rhine Province . Volume 1, Section 3), pp. 71–72 ( online )
- Alexander Duncker : The rural residences, castles and residences of the knightly landowners in the Prussian monarchy along with the royal family, house, Fideicommiss and Schattull goods . Volume 10. Berlin 1867/68 ( PDF ; 238 kB).
- Richard Klapheck : The art of architecture on the Lower Rhine . Volume 1. Düsseldorf 1915/1916, pp. 43-44, 323 ( online ).
- Hanns Ott: Rhenish water castles. History - forms - functions . Weidlich, Würzburg 1984, ISBN 3-8035-1239-5 , pp. 163, 164-165.
- Gregor Spohr: How nice to dream here. Castles on the Lower Rhine . Pomp, Bottrop / Essen 2001, ISBN 3-89355-228-6 , pp. 162-163.
- Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 148-149 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c A. Wemmers, J. Wroblewski: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein. P. 148.
- ↑ a b G. Spohr: How nice here to dream away. Castles on the Lower Rhine. P. 162.
- ↑ a b c d A. Duncker: The rural residences, castles and residences of the knightly landowners ...
- ↑ a b c P. Clemen: The art monuments of the district of Moers. P. 72.
- ^ H. Ott: Rheinische Wasserburgen. P. 164.
- ↑ a b c A. Wemmers, J. Wroblewski: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein. P. 149.
- ^ Xanten, Stiftsarchiv, Urk. Rep. II, No. 875.
- ^ A b Udo Mainzer (ed.): Yearbook of the Rhenish Preservation of Monuments . Volume 39.Butzon & Bercker, 2004, ISBN 3-937251-23-5 , p. 366.
- ^ R. Klapheck: The architecture on the Lower Rhine. P. 340 (online) .
Coordinates: 51 ° 36 ′ 56.5 ″ N , 6 ° 29 ′ 2 ″ E