Effeld Castle

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Effeld Castle from the south

Effeld Castle , also called Effeld House, is a small moated castle on the western edge of the Wassenberg district of Effeld in the Heinsberg district of North Rhine-Westphalia . It is in the vicinity of the Effelder Waldsee recreation center.

The core of the complex dates from the end of the 15th century and was rebuilt to its present form at the beginning of the 17th century. The castle stands as since April 19, 1983 monument under monument protection .

history

Not much is known about the beginnings of the Effelder plant, because the house has been robbed, looted and burned down several times in the course of history, so that its archive no longer contains any documents from the early days. What is certain is that in 1256 the owner of Effeld, Philipp von Effeld, was first mentioned in writing together with his brother Gottfried von Heinsberg in a document dated April 22nd. At that time, Philipp was the master of a castle that was built in the 13th century as a successor to a Motte and was a Heinsberg fief . In the 14th century Otto, son of Arnold von Effeld, was a tenant, later the property belonged to the Wassenberger Mannkammer.

In the 15th century the property came to Sibert von Kessel and then to Sander von Eyll. The latter is still mentioned as the owner in 1494. Around 1500, Effeld Castle came through Sibert's daughter, presumably through inheritance to Dietrich von Baexem from the family of the Lords of Baexem (also spelled Baexen). His son Heinrich from his marriage to Barbara de Wilde von Mersen succeeded Effeld after his father's death in 1502. In 1542 he was the first of his family to be mentioned in a document as the owner of Haus Effeld. When Heinrich died in 1567, he was inherited by a son from his first marriage, Mattheus von Baexem. While this gentleman was at House Effeld, the property suffered greatly. The reason for this was the Truchsessian War , during which Spanish troops led by the Prince of Chimay , Charles III. de Croÿ , looted the complex on April 7, 1584 and set it on fire. The Spaniards visited Effeld again in the same year and caused a total damage of 2000  gold guilders .

Effeld Castle on a photograph from the beginning of the 20th century

Mattheus' son Johann, head coach of the Duchy of Jülich , succeeded his father as the castle owner. After his death on October 12, 1636, his widow, Anna left of Randerath to Horrich that Vorburg renew Effelds completely and invested 400  Reichstaler in the reconstruction of the mansion . When Anna and Johann's son Ferdinand ruled Effeld, the complex was again the victim of looting in 1672. This time it was troops of the French King Louis XIV who occupied the area around Effeld in the course of the Dutch War . In order to avoid a threatened second pillage of his property by French soldiers, Ferdinand paid the occupiers 700 Reichstaler. When he died on April 22nd, 1678, he left his widow Maria Margaretha von Boedberg not only two underage children, but also a lot of debts. At that time Effeld was completely financially ruined by the French billeting around Jülich Land. When Maria Margaretha died on December 29, 1692, her son Johann Adam von Baexem followed her. He was the last male member of the family to live at Effeld Castle. He died in 1724, and the property passed to the second husband of his daughter Maria Margaretha Adolphina Felicitas. She had married Franz Menardus Caspar Adolph von Aach on November 8, 1723. However, the couple separated childless, and with Maria Margaretha the line of those from Baexem to Effeld ended.

In 1727 Baron Johann Georg von Hees acquired the property. His widow married Captain Johann Bernard von Hasenbach in 1745/1746 and brought the house to him. His daughter lived there until her death in 1806. Then the property was inherited by a Mr Splinter from Roermond . In the first half of the 19th century, the van der Renne family, based in Bruges , became the owners of the castle, which was run in 1852 as a manor suitable for the state parliament . Amadeus van der Renne sold the Effeld house in 1899 to Baron Theodor von Blanckart , whose descendants are still the owners today. The family had the moated castle rebuilt almost true to the original after severe damage in the Second World War .

description

Site plan of the palace complex

House Effeld was a two-part system, whose moats are fed by the Schaagbach. In addition to the manor house that still exists today, there was an outer bailey to the east, through which the access to the main bailey was made.

The outer bailey was on its own island, around 3600 m² in size, and used to have four wings. Its wings were grouped irregularly around an inner courtyard. Nothing is left of these today. The tranchot map from the beginning of the 19th century still shows the eastern and southern outer bailey wings as well as part of the north wing. The east wing subsequently disappeared in the first half of the 19th century, the remaining buildings were laid down around 1900. On another crescent-shaped island in the south of the palace area there is still a rectangular building from the 17th / 18th century. Century. It has a large gate , which is framed by large cuboids and crowned by a flat triangular gable.

Floor plan of the manor house

To the west of the Vorburginsel stands the rectangular mansion, to which a stone bridge leads. The brick building with ashlar structure rises directly from the water of a house pond and has a floor plan measuring 18.5 × 12.5 meters. Its two floors are of a gable roof completed. At the two western corners there are square towers with three storeys that are placed over the corner and are covered by eight-sided slate helmets . The core of the building dates from around 1494 and thus from the late Gothic period . When the house got its two curved stepped gables with light openings in the late Gothic style is not known, but they point to the Renaissance . In 1606, a four-story tower with a slate roof was placed in front of the house on the south side, giving it its present-day appearance. The tower took up the new round arched stone portal of the building, which is flanked on both sides by ¾- pillars . Above its triangular gable is a stone tablet with the inscription ANTIQUA CUM ESSEM RENOVATA SUM ET TURRE HAC AUCTA 1606 (“When I was old, I was renewed and a tower was built, 1606”). On the floor above there is an oval window of later date. The outer wall at the level of the third floor shows a clock tower. Most of the mansion windows are no longer from the Renaissance period, but almost all of them were renewed in the first half of the 19th century. Some of the old walled -up cross- frame windows are still clearly visible. At the same time as the new windows, the building received pointed dormer windows .

To the northwest of the mansion is an undeveloped, inaccessible island that measures about 33 × 21 meters. The area overgrown with trees and bushes could have been the location for the predecessor moth of today's house. This predecessor plant was abandoned by the end of the 15th century at the latest.

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments. 1967, p. 153.
  2. ↑ Brief description from the monument authority on limburg-bernd.de , accessed on January 18, 2020.
  3. ^ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet : Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine. Volume 2. Wolf'sche Buchdruckerei, Düsseldorf 1846, No. 425 ( online ).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Entry by Markus Westphal on Effeld Castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Peter Geuskens: The van Baexen family in Effeld , 2002 ( online ).
  6. ↑ a b Holger. A. Dux: Schloß Effeld , accessed on January 18, 2020.
  7. ↑ The history of the village of Effeld on effeld.eu , accessed on January 18, 2020.
  8. ↑ Heribert Cremers: Effeld in the Mirror of the Centuries , accessed on January 18, 2020.
  9. ↑ Karl Franck-Oberaspach, Edmund Renard: The art monuments of the district of Heinsberg. 1906, p. 105.
  10. ↑ Karl Franck-Oberaspach, Edmund Renard: The art monuments of the district of Heinsberg. 1906, p. 106.
  11. ^ Harald Herzog: Rhenish palace buildings in the 19th century. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-7927-0585-0 , p. 62.
  12. ↑ a b c Entry by Markus Westphal about the Effelder Motteninsel in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute.

Coordinates: 51 ° 7 '23.7 "  N , 6 ° 5' 48.5"  E