House Vlassrath
The Vlassrath House , more rarely called Vlassrath Castle and often also written Vlaesrath in the past , is a mansion in the Lower Rhine region in the area of the municipality of Straelen . It stands on the left bank of the Niers, almost within sight of the Eyll house, about a kilometer north of it. The property goes back to a medieval knight's seat, which was rebuilt at the beginning of the 17th century after a fire. House Vlassrath can be seen from afar, but cannot be visited.
history
Exactly when Haus Vlassrath was founded is not yet known, but there was already a nearby mill in the first half of the 14th century, which was owned by the Klever bailiff Wolter von Wossum and suggests the existence of a fortified knight's seat for this time . Wolter's daughter Sophia married the electoral Cologne bailiff von Liedberg , Engelbert von Orsbeck. The pair presented a certificate from 1390, in which it declared that the Duke of funds with his house and its outer bailey to want no harm to Vlassrath ( "huse end vorgeborghte to Vlasroten"). The house mentioned in the document was probably only completed shortly before.
From 1432 the Vlassrath house was a Geldrisches fiefdom , which was firmly connected with the Straelen office . In 1441 Engelbert von Brempt became the new owner of the property and as such was enfeoffed with it, but at that time the widow Sophia von Wossum had the usufruct. Sophia's daughter Engelbert von Brempt had probably married beforehand and brought the property into the marriage. After the death of his first wife, the new owner entered into a second marriage with Aleid Schenk von Nideggen and signed Vlassrath to her in 1460 as a personal property . The house came from Engelbert in 1473 to his son of the same name Engelbert II and from him in May 1505 to Evert von Brempt. After his death in 1544, Evert's underage son Jost was enfeoffed with Vlassrath, while Evert's widow received a usufructuary right. Jost renounced the property in favor of his younger brother Engelbert (III.), So that he received the loan in June 1556. Engelbert's sons succeeded their father as tenants, first Wilhelm in 1585 and then Johann von Brempt after his death.
This Johann had House Vlassrath, which had burned down in a fire before 1607, including the forecourt and mill, together with his wife Johanna von Berg (h) e zu Trips until 1612 and thus essentially gave it its present appearance. The von Brempt family sat on the newly built knight's seat until 1642, then they died out on Vlassrath with the 14-year-old Wilhelm on March 4th of that year. Wilhelm's mother Irmgard von Blittersdorf had married Baron Johann Arnold von Wachtendonk for the second time and thus brought the property to him after the early death of her son. In the following years, Vlassrath was partly in the hands of several families at the same time, before Isabella Ricard, widow of Philipp Franz von Varo in House Caen in 1713, redeemed a debt of 6900 Patagon on Vlassrath and thus became at least part owner, if not sole owner , has been. She bequeathed the small complex to her son Alexander Ferdinand Philipp, who was enfeoffed with it on October 12, 1718 by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm .
The new owner sold it to Isabella Maria von Romer in 1721, so that in 1722 her underage son Johann Jakob Reiner was enfeoffed with Vlassrath. After his death it probably came to his sister Johanna Adriana, who had married Arnold Carl Philipp August von Varo a month earlier. The couple resided in the nearby Caen house, and from then on Vlassrath was only lived in and managed by tenants.
Since 2006 the mansion has been the residence of a member of the Geyr von Schweppenburg family , who had it extensively restored from 1999 to 2006 . Two rooms in the main house and one suite are available to guests as guest rooms for overnight stays.
description
The current structure of the Vlassrath house dates back to different centuries. Two coats of arms made of sandstone on the façade of the manor house on the courtyard side are reminiscent of its builders, the married couple Johann von Brempt and Johanna von Berg (he) zu Trips. The former two-part structure of the complex can no longer be recognized today, because the former moat between the outer bailey and the manor house no longer exists. There is nothing left of the former farm buildings, instead there is a front building in the outer bailey that can be dated to around 1600 thanks to its cross-storey windows .
The core of the main house dates from the 14th century, as does the partially preserved 1.50 to 1.80 meter thick surrounding wall , which enclosed a square with a battlement . In this area there used to be a brick building with an L-shaped floor plan and a side dimension of 27 meters on the long side. On the southwest exterior wall of which two have corbels as remains of an abortion oriel received.
Today's mansion presents itself as a rectangular building on the north-west side of the quarter, the outer walls of which are in part not as strong as those on the south-west side. From this it can be concluded that the building is more recent, probably from the second half of the 15th century. An indication of this are the blind arches on the facade of the courtyard, as can also be found at Rheydt Castle and Graefenthal Monastery . Three windows on the upper floor of the building, equipped with shutters and facing the courtyard, as well as the southern Renaissance gable , which with its eleven holes also served as a dovecote , bear witness to a renovation of the house at the beginning of the 17th century.
Some parts of the original interior have been preserved. For example, two cellar rooms with 6-yoke , Gothic ribbed vaults and a stucco ceiling in the large hall of the main house with the year 1612, which heralds the reconstruction. In that room there is also Vlassrath's most interesting piece of art from a historical perspective: a fireplace made of white marble , which was made in 1613. Its architrave , supported by two Ionic columns , shows a series of 16 family coats of arms that can be assigned to the ancestors of Johann von Brempt and his wife. He also shows pictorial representations of scenes in connection with the Hundred Years War . The center scene bears the inscription In maximo bello consistentes Deus praeter omnem opinionem hominum sua maxima benignitate inducias largitur unde confidentes summa Dei misericordia dicimus: “da pcaem in diebus nostris” ( We were engaged in the worst war, God gave the people with, against all expectations a truce from which we, trusting in the mercy of God, say: "Lord give us peace in our day" ).
Remnants of the chapel , documented as early as 1447 but broken off in the first half of the 15th century, are still preserved today in the form of a Gothic niche in a half-timbered house.
A grain mill belonged to Vlassrath, which was mentioned in a fiefdom of the Siegburg Abbey from the period between 1320 and 1349 before the manor house . Your building stands southeast of the main house directly on the Niers and dates from 1876. The black and yellow shutters are reminiscent of the colors of the Geyr von Schweppenburg family, who were former owners of the mill. The building has been used for residential purposes since it was expanded in 1972. Nothing is left of the oil mill at the entrance to Vlassrath, mentioned in 1461 and already demolished before 1800 .
literature
- Stefan Frankewitz : Castles, palaces, mansions on the banks of the Niers . 1st edition. Boss, Kleve 1997, ISBN 3-9805931-0-X , pp. 172-182.
- Stefan Frankewitz: The Lower Rhine and its castles, mansions mansions along the Niers . Boss, Geldern 2011, ISBN 978-3-941559-13-4 , pp. 365-382.
- Walter Janssen (Red.): Excavations in the Rhineland '78 . Habelt, Bonn 1979, ISSN 0171-2128 , p. 248 ff.
- Constantin von Ruys: Historical investigation concerning the chimney in the hall at Vlaesrath Castle in the municipality of Straelen . In: Niederrheinischer Geschichtsfreund . 4th year. Klöckner & Mausberg, Kempen 1880, pp. 10-12.
Web links
- Website of the house
- Entry by Jens Wroblewski about Vlassrath House in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from S. Frankewitz: Burgen, Schlösser, Herrenhäuser an den Ufer der Niers , p. 366.
- ^ S. Frankewitz: Burgen, Schlösser, Herrenhäuser on the banks of the Niers , p. 366.
- ↑ S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces, mansions on the banks of the Niers , p. 367.
- ^ S. Frankewitz: Burgen, Schlösser, Herrenhäuser on the banks of the Niers , p. 374.
- ↑ S. Frankewitz: Burgen, Schlösser, Herrenhäuser on the banks of the Niers , p. 376.
- ↑ a b S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces, mansions on the banks of the Niers , p. 378.
- ↑ Quoted and translated from C. von Ruys: Historical investigation concerning the fireplace in the hall of Vlaesrath Castle in the municipality of Straelen , p. 11.
- ^ Website of the Vlassrath House ( Memento of the original from April 27, 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 January 17, 2012.
Coordinates: 51 ° 27 ′ 46.8 " N , 6 ° 17 ′ 48.5" E