Martfeld House

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House Martfeld seen from the north

The former manor house Martfeld is located on the eastern edge of the urban area of Schwelm and emerged from a moated castle , the origins of which are in the 14th century. Not far from the complex is the geologically significant castle cave .

history

Coat of arms on the gate tower
Inner courtyard with fountain and café
House Martfeld seen from the north-east

The Martfeld house, whose name can be translated as swampy terrain , was built at the beginning of the 14th century as an electoral castle in Cologne . But before that there was already a moth about 80 m away from today's facility , which is considered to be the predecessor of the Martfeld building. The former moated castle Martfeld was part of a network of bases that was supposed to protect the possessions of the Archbishop of Cologne between the Ruhr and Wupper . The Bergische counterpart to the Martfelder Grenzburg was the Beyenburg castle . Knights Wandhoff are known as the early owners of the building, who among other things also owned an ore mine near the Martfeld house.

The main building of the early Martfeld complex was just a simple stone house with two rooms: a heated eat-in kitchen and a bedroom. There were probably also a few wooden farm buildings. Later, the Martfeld house included forests, Gutsland, a water mill in the Rauental and a fishery on the Wupper.

The core of the round tower of the Martfeld house dates from 1450 and is the oldest part of the current building. In the 17th century, the then owner Adolf Wilhelm Raitz von Frentz had the north wing built in 1618 and then the square gate tower with drawbridge in 1627. The merchant Johann Peter Hochstein bought the Martfeld house in 1752 and invested in the run-down facility. He had the south wing built and gave the building its present form. This also included that he had the west wing torn down in 1755; the house has not had a closed courtyard since then. When the von Elverfeldt family owned the Martfeld family during the 19th century , Friederike Freifrau von Elverfeldt had a park laid out around the building complex.

In 1954 the city of Schwelm acquired the Haus Martfeld facility from the owner at the time, Baron Johannes von Hövel, who is still remembered today by the nearby Freiherr-von-Hövel-Weg . The local history museum has been housed in Haus Martfeld since 1962 and the city archive has also been there since 1966. Since then, the building has been rebuilt and modernized several times on behalf of the city: the renovation of the south wing was completed in 1978 and that of the central wing in 1982. After several years of restoration, the north wing of the house with a museum café and conference room was reopened in the summer of 2002. A restaurant has also been located in Haus Martfeld since then.

The Martfeld

Martfeld chapel hidden in the forest
Historic oat box in Martfeld before the fire

When Friederike Freifrau von Elverfeldt owned the Martfeld house in the 19th century, she had the park laid out, which was given its present form in the 1970s. With an area of ​​9.4 hectares, the park is the largest in the Schwelm urban area and a 0.7 hectare part of the park is considered a valuable urban biotope. In the 19th century, Friederike von Elverfeldt also commissioned the construction of a neo-Gothic grave chapel, which was built in 1860 according to the plans of the Cologne master builder Vincenz Statz . Seven years later, the Barm-based architect Gerhard August Fischer expanded the rear part of the chapel with an extension that served as a burial place for the Elverfeldt family. From 1996 to 1998 the Schwelm Beautification Association had the Martfeld grave chapel restored. Today the painting Lots Escape from Sodom by the baroque painter Johann Heinrich Damelet hangs in the building , which was once discovered under a pile of coal in a Schwelm cellar. In the annex of the chapel fossils from Schwelm mass limestone are permanently exhibited and guided tours through the building take place regularly.

In the immediate vicinity of the Martfeld house, two monuments commemorate the Schwelm personalities, the Protestant theologian and cartographer Friedrich Christoph Müller and the Protestant theologian and poet Johann Heinrich Christian Nonne . Other historical objects in the park of the Martfeld house are a pan mill from the 1930s, which was originally used in the Schwelmer paper mill Erfurt & Sohn , and an oat crate from the 16th century, which was completely scaffolded after a fire on August 27, 2019 and to be restored. The immediate area invites you to spend your free time with a playground, sports facilities, walking and hiking trails. For example, the circular hiking trail around Schwelm crosses the Martfeld.

South of the Martfeld is the deep cut of a railway line that is still in operation today. The cut was built in 1849 by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft and is one of the oldest structures of its kind in Germany. Problems with the construction of the cut delayed the commissioning of this early railway line in West Germany considerably.

Helios-Klinikum in the northeast of Martfeld

In the eastern part of the Martfeld there is an allotment garden and the Helios-Klinikum Schwelm.

Todays use

Haus Martfeld is now the venue for various events: In addition to a Christmas market and a craft market, a two-day wedding fair has been held at Haus Martfeld every year since 1997 . The south wing of the building is used for classical and jazz concerts, exhibitions, lectures, readings and smaller theater performances. The Schwelmer Heimatmuseum has been housed in Haus Martfeld since 1962, and its exhibits have been presented on several floors in the central and south wings since 1985. The city archive is located next to the museum in the south wing and its holdings complement the cultural and historical offer.

literature

  • Gerd Helbeck: House Martfeld . Westfälische Kunststätten issue 14, Recklinghausen 1981.
  • Anne Peter: The restored Martfeld Chapel . In: Association for local history Schwelm (ed.): Martfeld-Kurier . No. 25, 1999.
  • Hackler, Cornelia: Martfeld House . In: Ministry for Building and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia / Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (Hrsg.): Burgen AufRuhr. On the way to 100 castles, palaces and mansions in the Ruhr region . Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2010, pp. 138–141

Web links

Commons : Haus Martfeld  - collection of images, videos and audio files

On the website of the city of Schwelm:

Individual evidence

  1. State Institute for Ecology, Land Management and Forests of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia: Schwelm. City ecological specialist article. Recklinghausen, 2005. (PDF; 1.1 MB)
  2. NRW Foundation: Martfelder Grabkapelle in Schwelm
  3. ↑ The historical granary at Martfeld Castle burned down . In: wp.de (Westfalenpost) , August 28, 2019, accessed on August 29, 2019.
  4. 100,000 euros for fire refurbishment in Schwelm . In: wp.de (Westfalenpost) , October 16, 2918, accessed on November 2, 2019.

Coordinates: 51 ° 17 ′ 29.5 ″  N , 7 ° 18 ′ 30 ″  E