Gartrop Castle
The Gartrop Castle is a moated castle in Hünxer district Gartrop-Buhl . The castle complex is located near the road between Hünxe and Schermbeck- Gahlen in the Lippeauen in the southern area of the Hohe Mark Nature Park . The present-day town of Gartrop developed from the settlement of the former castle servants.
The facility can be viewed every second Thursday as part of events at the local country inn.
description
The palace complex consists of a baroque manor house , an outer bailey and two gatehouses as well as a watermill , which are surrounded by an English landscaped garden with extensive moats .
Entrance area
From the Landstrasse, the Schlossallee leads past a small watermill with buildings from the 15th century over a bridge to the entrance gate, on whose two pillars almost life-size sandstone statues of the goddesses Athena and Concordia by Johann Wilhelm Gröninger sit. Athena on the left is depicted in armor. An owl sits in her lap as a symbol of wisdom. Concordia, the goddess of unity and peace, is depicted on the right gate post. Both statues wear lavish robes and a helmet with a plume .
The lattice gate is flanked by two gatehouses, which were built between 1715 and 1720 and have a square floor plan. Their pyramid roofs are covered with slate and have a large chimney in the middle.
Outer bailey and chapel
The three-wing outer bailey stands northeast of the manor house. It used to house stables, a carpenter's workshop, a smokehouse and a bakery as well as a coach house and accommodation for servants. Its main facade is south-facing and has a neo-Gothic exterior.
A castle chapel from 1698 adjoins the outer bailey to the west . However, its appearance comes from a later renovation and is characterized by a mix of styles of Gothic and Moorish - Omayyad elements. The Portuguese monastery church of Batalha from the 14th century served as a model for the work . Above the portal there is a cast iron tracery window , which is framed by four pillars together with the portal and crowned by filigree tracery panels.
Inside the chapel, profiled pillars support a wooden flat arch vault . A sandstone plaque next to the exit points to Albrecht Georg von Hüchtenbruck as the builder of the chapel. Its Latin inscription reads: "ALBERT GEORG AB HUCHTENBRUCH HAS DEO STRIPIS LOCO DICAVIT AEDES ANNO 1698."
Mansion
The plastered mansion in the strict style of the Dutch Baroque is surrounded on three sides by a pond-like moat . The two-storey building still contains the structure of the first castle house from the 14th century. The four wings of the building enclose a narrow inner courtyard, which is covered with a viewing dome. The eastern and western wings are shorter than the other two and emerge like a risalit from the structure. The portal is located in the two-axis east wing with a low clock tower, which is closed by a curved dome with an open lantern . The other three wings of the simple building each have a flat hipped roof with small dormers .
A seven- step flight of steps leads to the sandstone portal, which is flanked by two half-columns that end in obelisks with spherical knobs. Above the entrance is the stone alliance coat of arms of Albrecht Gisbert von Hüchtenbruck and his first wife Johanna Katharina von Heiden and his second wife Agnes Maria von Bernsau. In addition, the year 1675 heralds the end of the construction period under Albrecht Gisbert's son Albert Georg von Hüchtenbruck.
The most important room in the mansion is a large baroque hall on the ground floor, which has been expanded into a bel étage. It has an elaborately designed relief stucco ceiling which, together with a similarly designed example in Anholt Castle, is unique on the Lower Rhine. It also has a colored lambris with painted wall coverings hanging over it and a rococo marble fireplace that is paneled up to the level of the ceiling .
The central focus, however, is the former inner courtyard, which has been converted into a two-storey hall with a roof. With its pilasters, it serves as a vestibule and staircase. All rooms of the manor house can be reached from there. Their design was partly in the Dutch, partly in the classical style.
In the course of restoration work starting in 2005, old wall coverings - the so-called Gartrop chinoiseries - were discovered. There are nine connected canvases 3.5 meters high and 80 to 98 centimeters wide. On a silvery shimmering, green background with paintings of flowers and tendrils, they show plants populated by exotic birds and Chinese-inspired scenes with women and children. Findings suggest that the coverings come from the large baroque hall, as they went well with the green wooden frame of the room at the time. The wall paneling was later transferred to a smaller cabinet , which was converted into a kitchen over time, so that the canvases disappeared under wallpaper from the early days . The Gartrop chinoiseries are particularly valuable and unique in their shape and quality in the Lower Rhine region. Comparable items can only be found in Friedrich II's tea house in Potsdam . The models for the Chinese-style wall coverings, which were very popular in the 18th century, are Rococo paintings such as those by Antoine Watteau and François Boucher .
Castle Park
Gartrop Castle stands in the middle of a three-hectare castle park, which is laid out in the English landscape style. Older landscape elements such as a baroque avenue in the south, the widely ramified system of moats and old trees (e.g. 300-year-old oaks) were included in its design.
There is a small mausoleum in the park east of the castle . It is the burial place of the von Hüchtenbruck family from 1901 in the neo-Romanesque style . There is also a small cemetery a little further away, where even today only members of the Nagell Forest Administration are allowed to be buried.
history
Residents and owners
The first demonstrable system goes back to the Knights of Gardapen, who were first mentioned in a document in the 13th century. Over time, the name Gartrop developed from the family name. Herberga, her heir daughter, married Heinrich Hüchtenbruck, Drosten von Orsoy , around 1400 and thus transferred the property to her husband's family. He became the progenitor of the family of the Knights von Hüchtenbruck and enlarged the Gartrop estate through numerous acquisitions.
The Hüchtenbrucks were initially in the service of Werden Abbey , but became Klevian ministerials in 1391 at the latest and rose to become one of the most influential noble families in the county and in the later Duchy of Kleve. They served the Brandenburg electors and the subsequent Prussian kings. Albrecht Georg von Hüchtenbruck became treasurer and chamber president of the Klevian duchy in 1609. As early as the 50s of the 17th century, his descendant Albert Gisbert planned a new building for the building at that time, but work did not begin until a few years later and was completed under Gisbert's son Albert Georg.
How influential the Gartrop castle lords were at the beginning of the 18th century is shown by the fact that the Prussian King Friedrich I borrowed money from them in 1704 for the purchase of Moyland Castle . The family died out in 1716 with Albert Georg in the male line. Before that, however, he had appointed the son of his eldest daughter Sybilla, Wilhelm Albrecht von Quadt zu Wickrath, as heir. The condition was tied to the inheritance that Wilhelm Albrecht combined his name and coat of arms with those of the Hüchtenbrucks, which he did in 1706.
The barons of Quadt were among the most influential Prussian representatives in the Rhineland. Wilhelm Albrecht's successor, Karl Wilhelm, was raised to the rank of count in 1786 and appointed Hereditary Marshal of the Duchy of Cleves in 1765. On the occasion of his appointment, he was in Berlin, and it is believed that Wilhelm Albrecht commissioned the valuable Gartrop Chinese wallpapers during this stay.
In 1805 the last male from Quadt also died out. The sister of the last owner, Countess Constanze Hermine Elisabeth von Quadt und Hüchtenbruck, inherited the castle. Through their marriage in 1805 it came to the Dutch colonel and baron von Nagell. He was with the on Apartment resident family of nail used enrolled to distinguish her but with a double-L.
Gartrop Castle remained in the possession of the von Nagells until 1993. In that year Egbert Freiherr von Nagell sold the castle to the Essen entrepreneur Dieter Thumulla. After the bankruptcy of the owner, a prospective buyer was searched for a long time from 1998 until the Essen-born Peter Blumrath auctioned the partly dilapidated and collapsing palace complex in November 2004. Since January 1, 2015, the castle has belonged to the Schäfer family from Cologne.
Building history
The beginnings
It is possible that the Gartrop estate developed out of a moth , but with the exception of a moth-like deserted castle near the present-day castle building as an indication, there is so far no evidence for this theory.
The first verifiable building at today's location was from 1375. The structure of this first castle house belonging to the Lords of Gardapen can still be found in the north wing of the castle. The outer wall of the south wing is probably still of medieval origin. In the 16th century, the building was expanded into an angular castle by adding a west and south wing, the fourth side of which was closed off by a wall with a gate.
New building in the Baroque style
After the building was badly damaged by a fire during the Thirty Years War , plans began in 1653 under Albert Gisbert von Hüchtenbruck for a new palace to be built in the same place in the Baroque style. Albert Gisbert commissioned Dutch architects to do this, but the start of construction work was delayed until autumn 1665. After the builder died in the same year, his son Gisbert Wilhelm continued the project, but he did not see the end of the new building and renovation either more, because he died in 1673. It was not until Gisbert's brother that the work came to an end in 1675.
The new castle was rebuilt as a four-wing complex on the old foundation walls and over the cellar vaults of the previous building, including some remains of the wall. The ground floor served as a bel étage with a generous suite of rooms and a large hall. The upper floor housed private rooms, most of which had a simple, white beamed ceiling with colored edges. Towards the end of the 17th century, however, the ceilings were fitted with "befitting" stucco profiles. In the course of the redesign, the western part of the inner courtyard was given a covered staircase and the utility rooms were relocated to the basement. The castle kitchen found a new place on the ground floor of the south-west wing. In accordance with the baroque taste, all windows were also brought to a uniform size and regularly arranged in the outer facade.
As early as 1641, the von Hüchtenbruck gentlemen founded a reformed patronage congregation, whose services were initially held in a room in the castle. After the castle chapel was built in 1698, services were held in the newly built church. They took place there regularly until 1990.
Changes in the 19th century
In 1828 Baron Mauritz Carl von Nagell began again with extensive changes to the palace complex. The moat between the manor house and the outer bailey to the east was filled in and its drawbridge was torn down. At the same time the portal of the manor house was given a flight of stairs made of Baumberger sandstone . In the same year, according to plans by Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe , the design of today's palace park in the English landscape style began. Weyhe included the previous moats and the baroque avenue in his design.
From 1829 the interior of the manor house was rebuilt and restructured. Staff stairs and corridors were built in, and bathrooms and toilets were installed. Staff and guest rooms were moved to the attic, and most of the ceilings on the upper floor were suspended with stucco ceilings in the Biedermeier style , and the windows were enlarged. After the outer bailey was demolished in 1836, with the exception of the then north wing (today the south wing) and supplemented by side wings in the north, the castle chapel was rebuilt in a neo-Gothic style in the same year. The facade design followed designs by the district builder W. Damen.
At the end of the 19th century, the eastern part of the mansion inner courtyard was also roofed: it was converted into a two-storey hall with a viewing dome.
Restorations
From 1993 to 1998 the new castle owner Dieter Thumulla had the first urgently needed restoration work carried out. Due to the renovation of the Gothic cellar vault in the 17th century, the statics of the building suffered greatly. Thumulla had the collapsed and endangered vaults rebuilt and supported from 1994. In addition, the ailing water and heating pipes in the castle building were renewed. But the property was not cultivated, so that the palace park was visibly overgrown. After 1998, the castle fell into disrepair during the long search for a buyer, before new conservation measures followed in February 2005.
After a country inn opened on the castle grounds in spring 2005, the restoration of the castle chapel (until summer 2007) and the manor house (until autumn 2007) followed. The chapel has since been available for church services and weddings, while the four-winged mansion is intended to serve as a venue. Hotel rooms were set up in the outer bailey. The construction work has so far cost twelve million euros.
literature
- Alexander Duncker : The rural residences, castles and residences of the knightly landowners in the Prussian monarchy together with the royal family, house fideicommiss and casket goods. Volume 9. Duncker, Berlin 1866/67 ( digitized version ).
- Klaus Gorzny: Lippe locks. Castles, palaces and aristocratic residences along the Lippe. Piccolo, Marl 2004, ISBN 3-9801776-8-8 , pp. 156-159.
- Harald Herzog: Gartrop Castle. In: Kai Niederhöfer (Red.): Burgen AufRuhr. On the way to 100 castles, palaces and mansions in the Ruhr region. Klartext Verlag , Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0234-3 , pp. 385-388.
- Harald Herzog: The Frederician Chinoiseries from Gartrop Castle. In: Preservation of monuments in the Rhineland. Volume 14, No. 4, 1997, ISSN 0177-2619 , pp. 154-161.
- Harald Herzog: Gartrop Castle on the Lower Rhine. An endangered property is preserved as a castle. In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . Volume 33, No. 4, 1996, ISSN 0342-1805 , pp. 241–248.
Web links
- Site of the castle
- Entry by Elke Nieveler on Gartrop Castle in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Photo gallery
Individual evidence
- ^ Paul Clemen : The art monuments of the city of Duisburg and the districts of Mülheim ad Ruhr and Ruhrort (= The art monuments of the Rhine province . Volume 2, section 2). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1893, p. 61 ( digitized version ).
- ^ A b Ferdinand GB Fischer : Excursion destinations on the Lower Rhine. Beautiful castles, palaces and moths. 2nd Edition. Pomp, Bottrop 2000, ISBN 3-89355-152-2 , p. 44.
- ↑ Klaus Gorzny: Lippe locks. 2004, p. 156.
- ↑ Klaus Gorzny: Lippe locks. 2004, p. 157.
- ↑ a b c Harald Herzog: Gartrop Castle. 2010, p. 387.
- ↑ Harald Herzog: The Frederician Chinoiseries from Gartrop Castle. 1997, pp. 154-161.
- ↑ Gartrop Castle has new owners. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . Edition of February 13, 2015 ( online ).
- ↑ schloss-gartrop.de ( memento from November 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed December 1, 2019.
- ↑ Christoph Witte: Living (almost) like the Windsors: We are the lords of the castle from the Ruhr area . Article from September 2, 2012 on bild.de, accessed on December 1, 2019.
Coordinates: 51 ° 39 ′ 44.7 " N , 6 ° 48 ′ 26" E