Libermé Castle

Libermé Castle - main building

Libermé Castle is a moated castle in the Belgian town of Kettenis . Popularly, the name developed from the Latin libera me , which means free me .

history

Libermé Castle with farm buildings seen from the (today) rear side

The oldest recorded mention of today's castle, which at that time was a fief of the Aachen Marienstift , dates back to 1334. In 1346 the castle was owned by Arnold von Libermé, whose family was named after the castle, and until the middle of the 15th century . Century lived there. Later, changing owners followed, including the family of Aachen mayor Johann Bertolf von Belven , who also acquired the neighboring Waldenburghaus , and the Hoesch family .

A new building with outer bailey and farm was built from 1534 by Hermann von Batenburg, who was named as the owner in 1531 and in whose family the castle remained until 1589. In 1684 the main building was burned down by French troops and then rebuilt by the new owners, the de Halley family. Another destruction took place by a fire in 1750 and this time it was the brothers Maximilian Thomas de Royer (1706–1790) and Jacobus Alexander Joseph de Royer (1714–1783) who had to rebuild the castle and the drawbridge through a fixed one Replace stone bridge. Libermé remained in the possession of the de Royer family until 1811, before it was taken over by the mayor of Kettenis and owner of Weims Castle , Piere André Guillaume Joseph Poswick (1769-1851), who already succeeded the estate in 1823, Wilhelm Heinrich Franz The Losen (1782 -1832). The latter bequeathed it to his daughter in 1880, who was married to the judiciary Franz-Audomar Broich.

A complete renovation of the complex with an additional storey and a new roof took place towards the end of the 1910s, after Libermé came into the possession of Anna Maria Theresia Suermondt (1864–1934), née Englerth, the widow of Emil Karl Suermondt (1847–1915) in 1918 ), a nephew of the German-Belgian entrepreneur Barthold Suermondt . After her son and art historian Edwin Karl Friedrich Suermondt (1883–1923) died early and before his mother, her grandchildren Mechtild and Egbert Suermondt from Düsseldorf took over the property and kept it until 1944. Libermé Palace was renovated in the 1960s and in A restaurant was set up in the main building before it was completely renovated again in 1995/1996 after a change of ownership. Since then, it has served as the headquarters of a tax consultancy, an institute for international tax law and chamber music concerts .

The facades and the roof of the castle were placed under monument protection by royal decree in 1958 ; The Torburg followed in 1985 .

Building description

Castle building

Southwest view

The castle building is laid out according to an L-shaped floor plan and consists of the actual two-storey, six-axis and rectangular mansion , with the sixth axis located to the west being structurally and vertically merged with the former lower and short south-western side wing after several renovations. The two parts of the building rest on a compact ground floor, which in terms of depth is more like a basement. The building complex is provided with a coherent mansard roof, which was raised and extended in 1910 , whereby the protrusion of the southwest wing was decorated with a conical roof and attached weather vane. The arched basement access to the side wing is from the 16th century and in the lintel of the cellar door on the main building is the reused stone with the coats of arms of the former owner families Batenburg, Straet and Libermé. Access to the main floor in the first basement is achieved by means of a side mounted to the main building stone steps. The bel étage and the upper floor are equipped with cross-lattice windows, while small square windows are installed in the basement and in the mansard roof, the latter with small window gables. The south-west facade, supported by three buttresses and overgrown with ivy , has no windows at all. The building consists mainly of quarry stone masonry and on the back upper floor of the main house of half-timbered construction , which was partially replaced by cemented masonry during the last restoration in 1918.

The castle is surrounded by a continuous moat, which is covered from the forecourt with a three-arched stone bridge built in 1756, in the place of which a drawbridge has existed since the earliest times . This bridge is the only connection to the outer bailey, from where there is access to today's road from Aachen to Eupen.

Outer bailey

Torburg Libermé Palace - entrance area

Torburg Castle Libermé - back side

The outer bailey complex consists of the gate castle belonging to the castle itself and two former farmsteads with barns and stables. The gate castle, which dates back to 1534, is characterized by two heavy round corner towers that are thickened in the lower area and frame the former gate passage. The towers are covered with high eight-sided slate roofs that merge into the gable roof of the entrance area. The coats of arms of the Batenburg and Straet families can be found on the side vaulted stones of the towers. In the two-storey area between the towers, which is now a living area, the structure of the former round arched portal with two pointed arcades and the rectangular frame for a drawbridge can be seen on the street side. In front of it there are two massive bluestone blocks that supported this bridge. From this it can be concluded that the Torburg must have been surrounded by a moat in earlier times. Above the small rectangular window on the upper floor is a lintel stone with decorations, on which the names of the builders Straet and Batenburg and the year 1534 are carved with a Gothic inscription.

The living area between the towers is joined at the back with a slight bend by a total of five-axis building with a gable roof, with the first axis forming the rear of the gateway to the gate, extended by the attached four-axis part, which, according to the integrated anchor iron, dates from 1835. At the rear of the extension there is a glass winter garden in the middle over two axes and the windows are equipped with sills made of bluestone. To the north of this building complex is another two-storey, two-part, former stable building made of quarry stone with a gable roof, also converted for residential purposes. It is divided into a four-axis east wing and a two-axis west wing by a gate-like entrance with a central pillar and radial rungs, the latter with a winter garden above. All windows of both wings of the building are bordered with bluestone. There are also some farm buildings and stables between these two building complexes.