Steinhausen Castle

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Castle tower and residential building of the complex

The Steinhausen castle stands on the mining trail Muttental in Witten district Bommern south of the Ruhr . Its landmark is a round tower on the east side of the palace area, which currently lacks a helmet .

Built in the 13th century by the Lords of Witten, it served to secure a crossing over the Ruhr. The estate came to the Staël von Holstein family through marriage in the 15th century and remained in their possession for almost three centuries before it passed to the Barons von Elverfeldt . After changes of ownership in quick succession during the 19th century, the Witten entrepreneur Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg acquired the building complex in 1893 and had it extensively altered in the style of historicism . It gave it its current appearance.

The palace complex is now home to a restaurant and artist studios, among other things. It can only be viewed from the outside. However, the small palace park is open to the public.

history

The condition of the system around 1650, drawing by Jakob Staël von Holsteins
Shona sculptures in the park

Steinhausen Castle goes back to a former hilltop castle , which was first mentioned in a document in 1297. It was owned by the Lords of Witten, of whom Hermann and Everhard are the first namesake of this family and in 1248 were in the service of Count Dietrich von Altena-Isenberg . They were entrusted with ensuring the safety of a ford and ferry across the Ruhr. For this purpose, Everhard's son, Bernhard von Witten, built a permanent house on the bank of the Ruhr at the end of the 13th century, mentioned in documents as Steenhus . The current facility got its name from this Steenhus . The appearance of the castle at that time has been handed down through a certificate of division from 1321 . Accordingly, it was a stately double castle complex, which also included a private chapel. However, this castle was destroyed in 1434 by troops from the imperial city of Dortmund , consisting of 700 mercenaries and 20 horsemen. Rötger von Witten (also Rotger) then had today's Haus Witten - at that time called Burg Berge - built on the opposite bank of the Ruhr .

Through the marriage of the heiress Jutta with Lutter Staël von Holstein, the knight seat Steinhausen came to his family in 1464. In 1529 Hardenberg Staël von Holstein, who ran a coal mine there , had the facility rebuilt. A descendant of Hardenberg, the Hildesheim canon Robert Staël von Holstein, had a stepped gable house built in 1607 together with a tower that can be seen from afar . After the male line of the family died out, the free lady Helena Margareta and her niece Maria Helena, both canonesses in Asbeck , were the last members of the Staël line from Holstein to Steinhausen. In 1732 they gave the property away to their nephew, Baron Friedrich Christian von Elverfeldt.

1810 was Levin of Elverfeldt on the site of a new mansion in neo-classical building style. His descendants sold the plant in 1851 to the two Dutch manufacturers Jan Jakob van Braam and Gerrit Vriese, who were followed as owners by the Fromberg and Tex families. In 1893, the Witten building contractor Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg acquired the castle and the land belonging to it. He had the entire complex changed into a romantic manor in accordance with the taste of the time in the style of historicism , giving the buildings their current form. The plant finally came from the Dünkelberg family through marriage to the Oberste-Frielinghaus family, who are still the owners.

From 2004 to May 2009 the stepped gable house was used by the Heimat- und Geschichtsverein Bommern, which had its work and archive rooms on the upper floor. On the ground floor he ran the "Heimatstübchen" with an exhibition of objects from Bommeran's history.

The manor house has served as a restaurant since 2001. In the former cowshed there is a mountain bike school, while other rooms in the ensemble are used as artist studios. A permanent exhibition of Shona sculptures from Zimbabwe, South Africa, has been on view in the palace gardens and in an adjacent former farm building since May 2002 .

description

The ramshackle spire in the courtyard
The mansion

Today's palace complex consists of several buildings. The south of the area is occupied by a three-wing plastered building with a gable roof , which once served as a stable.

On the east side there is a three-storey tower on a circular floor plan, the lower part of which dates from the Middle Ages . Its upper section, including the staircase that spirals around the tower, dates from the 19th century. The building used to have a polygonal helmet with a weather vane , but it had to be removed in 1999 for safety reasons. The roof skin and beams were rotten, and the tower showed mining damage. Since then, the helmet has stood in the palace courtyard. The Friends of Steinhausen Castle, which was specifically founded in June 2005, sought donations and public funding for the restoration of the tower and its roof for a long time , the cost of which is estimated at 156,000 euros, but after the dissolution of the association, the plans for this have been postponed for the time being.

The tower is adjoined to the southeast by a residential building with quarry stone masonry , the most striking feature of which is its stepped gable . It was probably built on the foundations of an older palace and has Gothic ornaments, such as a cornice with an egg-shaped profile . The northern part of the two-story building is from the Renaissance period , while the southern part is an extension from around 1800. Above the arched entrance on the west side there is a coat of arms and the date "1.2.1607" as well as the inscription: "Robbert Stael von Holstein, Thumbcuster zu Hildesheim built me." In the obtuse angle there is a quarry stone farm building at the southern end of the extension on, which is closed by a tiled gable roof. Its origins are probably medieval, but its stepped gables are an ingredient of the 19th century.

In the north of the area is the two-storey manor house with a half-hip roof . It is divided into nine axes by windows. Its oldest structure is medieval, other parts date from the 16th and 17th centuries. Comprehensively changed in 1810 in the style of classicism, the building was redesigned from 1899 onwards. The vestibule , the staircase, the veranda and western extensions in the historicism style date from this period .

At the northeast corner of the manor house is the historic palace chapel . Basically dating back to 1648, it was fundamentally redesigned in 1904 according to the prevailing taste of Art Nouveau . Inside you can see old tombstones from the 15th to 18th centuries, including the Hardenberg Staël von Holsteins tombstone.

literature

  • Alexander Duncker (Ed.): The rural residences, castles and residences of the knightly landowners in the Prussian monarchy, along with the royal family, house fideicommiss and casket goods . Volume 6. Duncker, Berlin 1863/64 ( PDF ; 222 kB).
  • Klaus Gorzny: Ruhr castles. Castles, palaces and aristocratic residences along the Ruhr . Piccolo, Marl 2002, ISBN 3-9801776-7-X , pp. 103-105.
  • Gotthart Kießling: Steinhausen Castle. In: Kai Niederhöfer: 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. 158-161.
  • August Kracht : Castles and palaces in the Sauerland, Siegerland and on the Ruhr . Knaur , Munich 1983, ISBN 3-426-04410-2 , pp. 250-254.

Web links

Commons : Steinhausen Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Emerich Krämer : From castle to castle through the Ruhr area . Volume 2, 2nd edition. Mercator, Duisburg 1986, ISBN 3-87463-098-6 , p. 26.
  2. ↑ K. Gorzny: Ruhr locks. 2002, p. 103.
  3. ↑ Castle history on the website of the castle restaurant , accessed on October 10, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b Lisa Timm: Dissolved: Freundeskreis Schloss Steinhausen eV throws in the towel. In: Ruhr news . Edition of April 1, 2009 ( online ).
  5. ^ Annette Kreikenbohm: Farewell to the tower. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . Edition of April 2, 2009 ( online ).
  6. ^ A. Kracht: Castles and palaces in the Sauerland, Siegerland and on the Ruhr. 1983, p. 253.
  7. ↑ a b c witten.de , accessed on October 11, 2017.

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 43.5 ″  N , 7 ° 19 ′ 22 ″  E