Bellinghoven Castle

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Bellinghoven Castle (north side)

The Bellinghoven Castle is a moated castle outside the districts Haffen and more of the city Rees in North Rhine-Westphalia Kleve . It is located six kilometers southeast of Rees in a former loop of the Rhine .

First mentioned in a document in the 14th century, the castle at that time was a fiefdom of the Counts of Kleve . Partly destroyed by Spanish troops in the Eighty Years' War , the most important parts were then rebuilt like a castle and changed again in the 17th century. The facility is used today by the Caritas Association Oberhausen and can only be viewed from the outside.

Not far from Bellinghoven Castle is the Averforth house from the 14th (15th) century, with which there have been connections over the years. Also the Castle Sonsfeld , the House Aspel , the Diersfordt castle and monastery Schledenhorst are in indirect around the castle.

history

The beginnings

The roots of today's palace complex can be found in a moth that was probably an offshoot of the Oberhofs in Mehr . The artificially raised mound of earth, including its wooden tower with a high entrance , was not only surrounded by a moat , but also protected by a palisade . The castle's task was to protect the surrounding land. Gradually it was expanded with buildings made of stone.

A Gerard von Bellinghoven was mentioned in a document as early as 1206. The castle itself was not mentioned in a document until 1325, when its construction by Dietrich von Bellinghoven († 1305) was completed and he gave it to Dietrich VII of Kleve on December 20th of the year . It thus became the open house of the Counts of Kleve. Otto von Hetterscheid acquired the property in 1470, but granted his cousin Johann von Bellinghoven the right to buy it back for 300  Rhenish guilders . This must have happened - at least in part - because Johann and his wife Agnes sold their part of the Bellinghoven house in 1481 to the knight Wilhelm von Bernsau . The sale had become necessary because of high debts. In 1492 Wilhelm von Bernsau acquired from Johann von der Horst , Drost des Landes Dinslaken , and his wife Maria "half and their share" in the Bellinghoven house as well as all related rights.

Modern times

Illustration of the castle from around 1650
Bellinghoven Castle on a postcard from 1910

During the Eighty Years War, the castle was besieged by Spanish troops in 1598 . After the castle crew had been able to repel two attacks, the Spaniards captured the complex on the third attempt, plundered it and murdered all residents. In a contemporary report on the event it says: "Two storms knocked off, the third lost: Everything looted, and everything that was murdered by people on it." Some of the buildings burned down. After the Spaniards left, the then castle owner Konrad von Bernsau had the most important buildings rebuilt like a castle.

After Konrad's death in 1607 he was succeeded by the Klevian bailiff in Bislich-Mehr-Haffen, Wyrich von Bernsau as owner. He had the castle supplemented by some additions and details of the buildings changed. During his time as the castle owner, the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg raised Bellinghoven to glory in 1649, along with the parishes of Haffen and more . When Wyrich died in April 1656, his son Wilhelm inherited the complex. However, he stayed mainly in Holland , where his family also owned properties through his mother. During the Dutch War , French troops looted and devastated the castle in 1672. It shared the fate of the nearby Sonsfeld Castle . Wilhelm belonged to the Reformed faith and gave the local Protestant congregation permission to hold services every 14 days in his Bellinghoven Castle. However, this practice came to an end after his death under his Catholic son-in-law. Wilhelm's daughter Margareta had married Count Franz Kaspar Adrian Schellart von Obbendorf against her father's will . After his death she entered into a second marriage with Franz Kaspar Schellart von Obbendorf, from which her two only children, two daughters, sprang. The older of the two, Elisabeth Henriette Maria Victoria, married Wilhelm Adrian von und zu Hoensbroech , Hereditary Marshal of the Duchy of Geldern , who resided in Geldern at Haag Castle on July 26, 1695 , and brought him that in 1704 - after the death of her mother in 1702 Bellinghoven Castle too.

With the permission of the Prussian kings, Joseph von Hoensbroech sold the facility to the Reformed preacher Johann Gottfried von Manger on July 1, 1788. He had the buildings of the manor , which was fit for the state parliament, rebuilt and essentially gave the complex its present-day appearance. During the French period, von Manger held the office of mayor in the Mairie Haldern , but had lost the sovereignty formerly associated with Bellinghoven due to the Napoleonic administrative reform . After von Manger's death in 1823, Bellinghoven changed hands several times through buying and selling. These include the Luyken, Münster and Haniel families .

Todays use

After the Second World War , the Walsum mining company acquired the facility. The associated land ownership was given as compensation to farmers who had to give up their farms because of mining. She left the castle itself with a little land to the Catholic Youth Office in Duisburg-Hamborn . In 1974 this was passed on free of charge to the “Die Brücke” association, which turned the building into a home for young people at risk. To this end, extensive renovation work as well as conversion and expansion measures were carried out from 1974 to 1976 . In this medieval pottery shards and bones found in the courtyard. Since 1983 the Oberhausen Caritas Association has been running a curative educational facility for young adults with mental disabilities in the castle .

description

Bellinghoven Castle (from the northwest with the castle moat)

Bellinghoven Castle stands on a rectangular, water-enclosed island, the entire area of ​​which is taken up by a basement, on which the castle building with a mansard roof rises above it. The level of the island is slightly higher than that of the surrounding area, so that the main entrance, a three-arched stone bridge on the northern long side, rises from the outer edge of the moat to the castle island. Another narrow entrance is on the east side. The eastern part of the island is occupied by a three-winged main building in the shape of a horseshoe, while the western part forms a kind of terrace . It is surrounded by a parapet wall and has slim, square corner towers with a tent roof . The two side wings of the main house are of different sizes: the younger northern one is narrower than its southern counterpart, and its two floors are lower than the two floors of the south wing. The middle wing has a four-story tower with a baroque tail hood and a crowning viewing platform, which is surrounded by a wrought-iron grille, as is the case at Falkenlust Castle . The portal of the house in the south wing is framed by four pilasters and shows simple stucco ornaments from the 18th century above the lintel .

The current buildings probably date from the 16th and 17th centuries, but are on older basement floors, as indicated by their significantly larger wall thicknesses. Outside the castle island there are no floor structures that indicate a former garden or park . Such are not recorded in old maps either, and there is no reference to this in documents. Bellinghoven Castle is one of the few mansions on the Lower Rhine for which neither a garden nor a park can be proven.

literature

  • Paul Clemen (ed.): The art monuments of the Rees district (= The art monuments of the Rhine province . Volume 2, section 1). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1892, pp. 12-13 ( online ).
  • Stefan Frankewitz : Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees. BOSS, Goch 2006, ISBN 3-933969-57-3 , pp. 38-42.
  • Walter Luyken: About castles and castle historical facilities in the Rees district. In: Kreis Rees (ed.): Home calendar. Rees county . Schiffer, Rheinberg 1967, pp. 87-88.
  • H. Obbeck: The glory of Haffen-Mehr 1649-1810. In: Rees district (ed.): Home calendar for Rees district . Emmerich 1952, pp. 81-86.
  • Heinrich Rotthauwe, called Löns: Land on the Rhine and Issel and the evil seven. Amt Haldern, Haldern 1975, pp. 161–165.
  • Gerd Stevens: Bellinghoven. The story of a moated castle in the Lower Rhine. Rees 2001.
  • City of Rees (ed.): Monuments in Rees. Bellinghoven Castle. Self-published, Rees no year ( PDF ; 745 kB).
  • Josef Wolff: The one from Bernsau (Bernsow) to Bellinghoven. In: Kreis Rees (ed.): Home calendar. Rees county . Schiffer, Rheinberg 1964. p. 117 ff.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Bellinghoven  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ City of Rees: Monuments in Rees. Bellinghoven Castle , p. 2.
  2. ↑ Information according to the information notice on site
  3. ↑ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet : Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine or the Archbishopric of Cöln, the principalities of Jülich and Berg, Geldern, Meurs, Kleve and Mark, and the imperial monasteries of Elten, Essen and Werden . Volume 3. Wolf, Düsseldorf 1853, document 208 ( online ).
  4. ↑ a b S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees , p. 38.
  5. ^ S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees , p. 39.
  6. ↑ a b City of Rees: Monuments in Rees. Bellinghoven Castle , p. 5.
  7. ↑ a b P. Clemen: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreis Rees , p. 13.
  8. ↑ rheinruhronline.de , accessed on June 8, 2012.
  9. ↑ Schloss Bellinghoven on the website of the Caritas Association
  10. ^ S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees , p. 41.
  11. ^ S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees , p. 42.

Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 34.2 "  N , 6 ° 28 ′ 55"  E