Hueth Castle

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Hueth Castle (front view with bridge and round tower)

Hueth Castle , pronounced Hüth, possibly also known earlier under the name Bruckhuet , is a moated castle about 1.5 kilometers north of the Reeser district of Bienen in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Kleve .

Shortly after it was built in the 14th century by the Knights of Hekeren (also Heckeren), the medieval complex became a fiefdom of Kurköln . At the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century, the former castle came to the von Wylich family , who owned it for more than three centuries. Remodeled into a palace in the 17th century , Hueth was sold to Friedrich Wilhelm von Borcke in the first half of the 18th century due to financial problems . His family redesigned the manor house in the Rococo style . Through marriage and inheritance, Hueth Castle came to the von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld family in the 19th century , who are still the owners today. Since she uses the buildings, most of which have been destroyed since the Second World War , privately, the facility is not open to the public.

history

Hueth Castle on an engraving by Paul van Liender after a drawing by Jan de Beijer from 1742

On June 24, 1361, the knight Rutger von Hekeren declared that Johann , the Count of Kleve , had allowed him to build a castle in Huether Bruch. The complex was the successor to a knight's seat that had stood about one kilometer northeast of the new castle and burned down in 1346. Three years later, Rutger and his wife Odilia carried the newly built castle to the Archbishop of Cologne, Engelbert III , of all places . and thus the greatest competitor of the Clever Counts in the struggle for power in the area around bees and at the same time made it an open house of the archbishopric.

At the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century, the complex came to Adolph von Wylich, the Klever bailiff in the Hetter since 1394. He bequeathed Hueth Castle to his son Godert in February 1428. In the following period, the von Wylich family almost without exception provided the Klever bailiff in the Hetter, so that their castle became the official seat of the office. In 1608 Johann Christoph von Wylich was appointed baron due to the rule Lottum an der Maas acquired by his father . Subsequently, the members of the Huether Wylichs called themselves " von Wylich-Lottum ".

During the Eighty Years' War plundered Spanish troops under their commander Francisco de Mendoza 1598 bailey and then set it on fire. A corner tower and all farm buildings were destroyed in the fire. The Spaniards had not been able to take the main castle . In a contemporary report it says "That veste Hauß Huit deß von Willach gentlemen to Gronstein scoffed and was burned off at workplaces, farms and other locations."

In 1647, Johann Sigismund von Wylich zu Lottum Hueth, along with the village of bees and the surrounding farmers, was given a fief. His family converted the castle into a prestigious palace in the second half of the 17th century. The moat that separated the main and outer bailey was filled and the drawbridge to the outer bailey was replaced by a solid stone bridge. Two pillars flanking the bridge took the place of the abandoned gatehouse . In addition, the defensive wall to the right and left of the entrance was torn down and replaced by a wrought iron grille. In the outer bailey, the clients had elongated building wings built along the circular wall on the north and south sides and connected to the west with round towers . Johann Sigismund was followed as the owner of Hueth by his son Philipp Karl , who was raised to the rank of count in 1701 . He was the Prussian field marshal and governor of the Wesel fortress and founded the evangelical-reformed parish of Hueth in 1712 , for which he set up a prayer room in the southern wing of the bailey. The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I was also present at the wedding of his son Johann Christoph and Baroness Hermine Alexandrine von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld on July 26, 1714 at Hueth Castle .

When the owner family was heavily indebted in 1736, they sold Hueth Castle and the associated Klevian subordination for 40,110  Reichstaler to Friedrich Wilhelm von Borcke, who was in Prussian service . In 1730 he was appointed President of the War and Domain Chamber in Minden and Kleve and was therefore looking for a proper place to live in the area around Kleve. His family was raised to the rank of count in 1790 and remained the owners of the palace complex until 1872. In the second half of the 18th century, the von Borckes had the Hueth manor house redesigned in the Rococo style. The stair tower that had existed up to that point in the central axis of the building was torn down and all Gothic gables were removed.

Engraving of the manor house including the archive tower after a drawing by Friedrich Pützer , ca.1892

Friedrich Wilhelm's grandson, Friedrich Heinrich, set up an observatory and a natural history cabinet in the palace . He was a close friend of Field Marshal Blücher , who is said to have ridden his horse up the stairs to the first floor one morning after a long carousing party to wake his friend. But the von Borcke family experienced a gradual economic decline, and Hueth was struck off the registers of manorial estates eligible for parliament in 1846 . When Friedrich Heinrich's son died without heirs in 1872, his sister Bernhardine inherited the castle. Her marriage to a member of the von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld family resulted in her husband's family after her death in the second half of the 19th century. This had the castle bridges renewed in the 19th and early 20th centuries and a modern farmyard was built north of the castle island. Extensive renovation work took place on the buildings before 1945 because the city of Oberhausen was planning to set up a rest home in the castle.

During the Second World War, the palace complex was fortified and was supposed to be defended by the Volkssturm , but during the heavy fighting over the Allies crossing the Rhine on March 26 and 27, 1945, numerous bombs and grenades hit the southern part of the outer bailey and the main building destroyed. The burned out mansion was finally demolished around 1960, only a defensive tower remained as a roofless ruin .

To this day, the facility is owned by the von Wittenhorst-Sonsfeld family, who still manage it. She had the undamaged north wing of the outer bailey repaired and converted for residential purposes. The castle cannot be visited due to its private use.

description

Site plan of the palace complex

The structure of Hueth Castle, which is still preserved today, stands on a water- enclosed castle island measuring around 50 × 100 meters, the area of ​​which is slightly elevated compared to the surrounding area and is surrounded by an embankment wall. Before the main house was destroyed in World War II, the complex was a two-part complex, consisting of a three-wing mansion and a front bailey to the west, the area of ​​which was about twice as large as that of the main house. The two areas were previously separated from each other by a water supply, which nowadays has been filled, but can still be seen as a weak depression. Hueth Castle was very similar to the Winnenthal House in Xanten , which was also owned by the von Wylich family for more than 150 years.

Outer bailey

The bailey Hueths earlier consisted of two opposing wings of brick , adhere to the inside of the north and south circular wall with battlements and loopholes anlehnten. Round corner towers from the 16th century with a conical roof stood at their western ends . The eastern halves of the two wings were broken off over time. The south wing was of a later date than the northern part and also a little higher. It bordered the south wing of the manor house to the east before its eastern part was demolished. There are still two basement rooms with barrel vaults . The western half of the south wing had a wall thickness of 1.5 meters on the ground floor and was spanned by three cross vaults. The so-called King's Hall , which was rebuilt in 1891, was located on the upper floor . From the western half of the southern wing of the outer bailey, only the outer walls remain today.

The western part of the north wing measuring around 30 × 9 meters is still completely preserved. Its two floors are at the grave side outer walls by a brick fries separated. Such was once found on the no longer preserved manor house. Walled loopholes testify to its former strength of defense. The walls of its round corner tower, which has a domed vault inside, are 1.6 meters thick. Before the wing was converted into residential use after the Second World War, it housed stables and a coach house .

A three-arched stone bridge leads from the west over the moat to a wrought-iron gate, which is flanked by two brick pillars with the year 1687. Life -size sandstone figures stand on profiled natural stone slabs . They belong to a group of four statues that represent the four seasons. The other two figures stand on brick pedestals in front of the access bridge.

The manor house of the castle from the north in the 1920s

Main house

The core of the three-wing main house dates from the 14th century and stood in the eastern area of ​​the castle island. Its oldest structure was found in the central and southern wings of the building. After a redesign during the Baroque period , it presented itself as a two-storey building with a mansard roof , the long sides of which were divided into eight axes by windows. On the side facing the outer bailey, the three central axes of the facade were crowned by a triangular gable. Under the Borcke family, it was richly furnished inside. Among other things, it housed a library of 1000 books, around 70 oil paintings and a valuable collection of 54 figures made of Meissen porcelain .

On the eastern corner, the manor house had a mighty round tower from the 14th century. Today only a ruin remains from him. The so-called archive tower with its three storeys had walls 2.5 meters thick and was closed off by a conical roof. It could be entered via a ground-level entrance that was built later. Inside it had a six-sided dome with polygonal consoles . The dungeon in the basement was closed by a flat domed vault. In the thick of the wall, a spiral staircase led to the two upper floors, where a fireplace and a toilet niche testify that they were once used for residential purposes.

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. 78-80 ( online ).
  • Stefan Frankewitz : Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees . BOSS, Goch 2006, ISBN 3-933969-57-3 , pp. 56-61.
  • Walter Luyken: About castles and castle-historical facilities in the Rees district . In: Home Calendar for Rees County 1967 , pp. 93–96.
  • City of Rees (ed.): Monuments in Rees. Hueth Castle . City of Rees, Rees no year ( PDF ; 1 MB).
  • Jens Wroblewski, André Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein . Konrad Theiss , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1612-6 , pp. 74-75 .

Web links

Commons : Schloss Hueth  - collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees , p. 57.
  2. ↑ 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, certificate 619 ( online ).
  3. ↑ a b c City of Rees: Monuments in Rees. Hueth Castle , p. 2.
  4. ↑ 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, certificate 656 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Ernst Heiss: Castles, palaces, seats in the Rees district (= The Lower Rhine. A series of publications . Volume 1). Rheinische Nationaldruckerei und Verlag, Duisburg [1937], p. 11.
  6. ↑ a b City of Rees: Monuments in Rees. Hueth Castle , p. 3.
  7. ^ City of Rees: Monuments in Rees. Schloss Hueth , p. 3. Stefan Frankewitz, on the other hand, speculates in his publication that the trenches may have been leveled after the warlike events of 1598. See S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees , p. 59.
  8. ↑ Information according to the city of Rees: Monuments in Rees. Schloss Hueth , p. 2. Other publications give other dates that vary between 1737 and 1742.
  9. ↑ a b c S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees , p. 58.
  10. ↑ Information about Hueth Castle on the website of the Borcke Family Association , accessed on January 4, 2020.
  11. ^ S. Frankewitz: Castles, palaces and mansions in Rees , p. 60.
  12. ↑ a b c d J. Wroblewski, A. Wemmers: Theiss-Burgenführer Niederrhein , p. 75.
  13. ↑ Information according to the online topographic map for Rees
  14. ↑ a b c P. Clemen: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreis Rees , p. 79.
  15. ↑ Information according to the cadastral map available online for Hueth Castle
  16. ↑ a b P. Clemen: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreis Rees , p. 80.

Coordinates: 51 ° 48 ′ 49.8 "  N , 6 ° 22 ′ 25.6"  E