Steprath House

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House Steprath on the so-called Tranchot card

The Steprath house is a former aristocratic residence north of Walbeck , a district of the city of Geldern on the Lower Rhine . The castle-like complex is located in a woodland area very near the German- Dutch border in North Rhine-Westphalia and is since September 20, 1984 as a monument under monument protection .

According to the historian Leopold Henrichs, the property probably emerged from a simple farm in the first half of the 15th century , which several generations of owners redesigned according to their needs. The complex was first mentioned in a document around the middle of the 16th century on the occasion of the marriage of the heiress Katharina von Geldern to Heinrich von Steprath, whose name was carried over to the house.

After extensive restoration from the late 1980s, the mansion of the complex now serves as a conference and meeting place. It is not possible to visit the building , which is a listed building.

history

The Glory Walbeck, and with it the Walbeck and Steprath houses , belonged to the Schenk von Nideggen since the middle of the 14th century . It was probably Heinrich Schenk von Nideggen who had the first permanent house built in Steprath in the first half of the 15th century . After his death, his two sons from his marriage to Aleidis von Hertefeld (also called Lisbeth) divided the property between themselves in 1452: Dietrich Schenk von Nideggen received the Steprath house and one half of the glory, while his brother Johann received the other half from Walbeck Castle got. When Dietrich died, his son Roelmann from his marriage to Adelheid von Büren succeeded him as master of Steprath. Since Roelmann died unmarried, Steprath fell to his younger brother Derick, who left no heirs when he died. The Steprath house therefore came to Gotthard Haes and Derick von der Lippe, a son-in-law of Wienand Schenk von Nideggens , after an arbitration decision by the Duke of Geldern in 1534.

The house was first mentioned in a document towards the middle of the 16th century, when Katharina von Geldern (de Gelre), daughter of Reiner von Geldern and his wife Adelheid Schenk von Nideggen, married Heinrich von Steprath and brought the complex into their marriage. Since then, the house has borne the groom's family name. Heinrich von Steprath died of the plague in 1586 and was inherited by his son Reiner. He was followed by his son Dietrich, who expanded the existing building in 1632 with a wing with cross-frame windows . During his time as lord of Steprath, the addition of another wing on the west side may also fall. Under his son's widow, a house chapel was added on the northeast side of the building complex that existed at the time. Dietrich's granddaughter Johanna Maria brought Haus Steprath by marriage in 1698 to the family of her husband, Johann Carsilius von Doornick called Ulft. This extended the west wing of the main house and had a narrow side wing built as a coach house and servant house.

Via the marriage of the heiress Johanna Elisabeth in 1765, Haus Steprath came to Baron Hermann-Adolf von Nagel in 1794 , who undertook to add the name of the Doornick family, which was dying out in the male line, to his own and to carry it on. After the complex had been unused for a long time in the 20th century and left to decay, Steprath's house came into the possession of a community of owners in 1988, which restored the property in need of renovation from 1989 with the support of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Rhenish Office for Monument Preservation . Not only was the growth removed and the ditch restored, the masonry was also restored and windows and parts of the roof replaced.

The outer bailey of Haus Steprath is leased today and is used by a riding stable. The main building has been converted into a conference and meeting place, the rooms of which are rented out for meetings, seminars, celebrations and other events.

description

Schematic floor plan of the main house

House Steprath is a two-part system consisting of a house and the south upstream Vorburg . It is completely surrounded by a wide, double moat that silted up over time and was restored in the 1980s. The buildings are located in the middle of a park , whose yew hedge is several centuries old. The park features an open-air amphitheater , a fire place, a barbecue area and play areas for children. There used to be a strictly symmetrical kitchen and vegetable garden as well as a pleasure garden in the style of the Dutch Baroque on the site .

Outer bailey

The floor plan of the two-winged outer bailey has the shape of a horseshoe, which is open towards the manor house. In the middle of the two-storey south wing is the baroque gatehouse of the complex with a stepped gable , the steps of which have alternating convex and concave arches. Around the arched gate, framed with blue stone blocks, the cover for the former drawbridge is still clearly visible. A stone coat of arms above the archway is made of Namur bluestone and shows the coat of arms and the names of the builders: Johanna Maria von Steprath and Johann Carsilius von Doornick. A year that can also be found in the stone tablet dates the construction of the outer bailey to the year 1698. The complete inscription reads: “JOHANN CARSELIUS VAN DOORNICK AND JOHANNA MARIA VAN STEPRAEDT, LORD AND WIFE OF FREEDOM WALBECK AND TWISTEDEN. Anno 1698 ".

Main house

A 640 meter long avenue of oak and beech paved with cobblestone connects the outer bailey with the main building. This is a conglomerate of several buildings from different epochs, which, despite the many construction phases, gives a fairly uniform appearance and thus testifies to the early efforts of its owners to adapt the different components to one another. The numerous, similar cross and transom windows also contribute to this uniformity .

The oldest component of the main building is a rectangular two-storey house, which forms the core of today's manor house and can no longer be seen from the outside due to extensions and additions. The first building received a northern extension, the north-west corner of which is marked by a square tower with four floors. Like the core structure, this probably dates from the end of the 16th century. In 1632, the owner Steprath had a three-story wing added to the building in the southwest, which is dated by wall anchors in the form of the corresponding year. Around the same time, in any case in the 17th century, a new wing was added in the south, but it was shorter than the one in the southwest and its length was probably not adjusted until the 19th century. The main building is connected to the northeast by an elongated two-storey wing with a hipped roof . Its large arched gate entrances testify to its former purpose as a coach house. Wall anchors in the form of the year 1712 indicate its year of construction. Due to the many different additions and extensions, the Steprath house does not have a uniform roof, but a diverse roof landscape in which there are also two tail gables .

Inside, the original room layout has largely been preserved. The kitchen from the 16th century still has its original fireplace with a plate floor made of bluestone and a large chimney. The year 1551 can be seen on a boiler hook. In the north-western, rear part of the main house is the chapel, donated in 1684 by Sophia Hedwig von Linden, Reiner Johann von Steprath's wife, with a baroque altar and wooden barrel vault . Two halls of the manor house still have old stucco ceilings from 1625.

literature

  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments . North Rhine-Westphalia, Volume 1: Rhineland . Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich, Berlin 1967, p. 618.
  • Elisabeth Eustrup: Steprath House, an old knight's seat . In: Historical Association for Geldern and the Surrounding Area (ed.): Geldrischer Heimatkalender 1958 . Historical association for Geldern and the surrounding area, Geldern 1957, pp. 56–61.
  • Stefan Frankewitz : The monuments of the city of Geldern (= Geldrisches Archive. Volume 6). Boss, Geldern 2001, ISBN 3-933969-12-3 , pp. 353-360.
  • Adolf Kaul: Geldrische castles, palaces and mansions (= publications of the historical association for Geldern and the surrounding area . Volume 76). Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 1976, ISBN 3-7666-8952-5 , pp. 111-113.
  • Theodor Wildeman : The miner's room in Steprath's house . In: The gold-blue book of Geldrischer Geschichte. Festschrift for the centenary of the Historical Association for Geldern and Surroundings (= publications of the Historical Association for Geldern and Surroundings . Volume 60). Historical association for Geldern and the surrounding area, Geldern 1951, pp. 133-136.
  • Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 130-131 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ S. Frankewitz: The monuments of the city of Geldern. 2001, p. 353.
  2. ↑ a b Steprath House on rheinruhronline.de , accessed on April 20, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b J. Wroblewski, A. Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein , p. 130.
  4. ↑ a b c d Steprath House on walbeck.net ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed April 18, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.walbeck.net
  5. ↑ a b c d J. Wroblewski, A. Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein , p. 131.
  6. ↑ Information about the archives on Haus Vornholz in GenWiki , accessed on April 18, 2013.
  7. ↑ Information on restoration on the house's website , accessed April 18, 2013.
  8. ↑ a b A. Kaul: Geldrische castles, palaces and mansions , p. 111.
  9. ^ S. Frankewitz: The monuments of the city of Geldern. 2001, p. 360.

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '50.2 "  N , 6 ° 13' 9.7"  E