Westerholt Castle
The Westerholt Castle is a moated castle in Herten district Westerholt on the edge of Westerholter forest. The complex, which is enclosed by graves, is still the ancestral seat of the Counts of Westerholt , which was first mentioned here in 1193 and later called itself from "Westerholt zu Gysenberg". Westerholt Castle and Herten Castle are among the most important castle complexes in what was once Vest Recklinghausen .
As early as the middle of the 14th century, a fortified complex was mentioned here, but nothing of this old castle has survived with the exception of the moats . In the course of numerous renovations and new constructions, Westerholt lost its defensibility and today presents itself to the visitor as a 19th century castle built in the style of classicism . His manor houses a hotel, while the outbuildings are used as a restaurant and café.
history
middle Ages
Wessel von Westerholt (approx. 1300 – after 1378) gave the then Westerholt Castle in 1359 as his free property to the Archdiocese of Cologne as an open house and received it back as a fief from Archbishop Wilhelm von Gennep . In the feudal application, the complex was mentioned as a "fortalicium" ( fortification ) and was probably built some time before. However, the former castle house was not in the place of the later main building, but either on the middle of the three castle islands or - what is more likely - in the southern part of the eastern castle island.
His son Wessel von Westerholt († 1388) inherited the castle. As a captain in the Dortmund feud, he was fatally injured and bequeathed the property to his son Johann von Westerholt, who remained childless. Together with Johann, the distant relative Adolph von Westerholt was enfeoffed with the castle and the castle settlement belonging to it. In addition, Adolph's brother Reyner von Westerholt, judge von Recklinghausen, was a co-owner of the goods. In 1417, the formal loan was passed on to Reyner's son, Borchard von Westerholt. In 1421 the property was divided between Borchard and Aleff, Adolph's son, whose families both lived in the castle. However, since Aleff had no legitimate offspring, in time he sold most of his stake to his cousin.
Because Reyner von Westerholt, Borchard's eldest son, chose the priesthood while his second wife was still alive and despite his own children, and thus renounced the right of his birthright, his brother Bernhard became Herr zu Westerholt, heir vogt and progenitor of the following noble lines. The property passed to the son Hermann von Westerholt, named after his father-in-law. His son Bernhardt inherited Westerholt Castle and, through marriage, also came into the possession of the Lembeck lordship . His sons Hermann and Bernhard III. divided the goods between themselves in 1556: Hermann became master of Westerholt, while Bernhard received the Lembeck goods.
Modern times
In 1583 the castle was besieged by the troops of Gebhard I von Waldburg during the War of the Truchess and then taken. But already on May 7th, 1584, the complex was returned to the troops of Elector Ernst von Bayern , and the von Westerholt family could again dispose of their property. However, the facility had suffered badly from the siege and occupation. In addition, Ernst von Bayern had its defensive walls razed after it was returned, so that the castle had been in a poor structural condition since the end of the 16th century.
The property passed to Hermann's son Berndt von Westerholt, who drowned in the Rhine in 1592 and thus left them to his underage son Hermann Hector. He died childless, so that the cousin Bernhard von Westerholt zu Wilbring received them. The Westerholt'schen estates were already heavily in debt at this point. After Bernhard's death, the still underage son Nicolaus Vinzenz became the castle owner. His guardians sold the property in 1643 to Nikolaus von Westerholt, a grandson of Bernhard III. Nikolaus acquired formalistic rights because his father Johann von Westerholt, Herr zu Lembeck, married the widow of Berndt von Westerholt and thus became the guardian of Hermann Hektor. When Vincent came of age, there were disputes over the possessions to which he was defeated. Sieges and pillage by Hessian troops in 1650 and 1653 did the rest to keep the buildings neglected. Through the marriage of Nikolaus' heir daughter Anna Elisabeth with Hermann Otto von Westerholt-Hackfort, the property came to the Hackfort family line. Since the so-called "upper house" of the castle complex was no longer habitable and part of the outer bailey burned down in 1671 , extensive construction work began under him. In the period from 1675 to 1678 Hermann Otto initially had new farm buildings built. Shortly before 1707, a new, very simple, two-story building followed on the west side of the Vorburginsel, which was used partly as a residential building and partly as a barn. The unused and ramshackle old house collapsed completely in 1708.
In 1724 Ferdinand Otto von Westerholt came into the possession of the Gysenberg estate through marriage to Maria Agnes von Ketteler . Together with his brother Johannes, he stipulated in a Fideikommiss on February 22, 1726 that the common property would henceforth go to the oldest descendant as an undivided inheritance and that the family would be called "von Westerholt zu Gysenberg" from that point on. Westerholt Castle then inherited Ferdinand Otto's son Joseph Clemens August Maria von Westerholt-Gysenberg. From his marriage to Wilhelmine Franziska von der Recke , the heir daughter Wilhelmine Friederike Franziska emerged as the only child. After their marriage around 1770, the castle came to the baron Ludolph Friedrich Adolf von Boenen to Berge . He took as a condition of Fideikommiss coat of arms and the name of the family of Westerholt and was in 1790 by Emperor Joseph II. In the imperial counts charged. Although he resided with his wife at Berge Castle in today's Gelsenkirchen district of Buer , he had the main building of the property redesigned.
After the building had been badly damaged by a fire in February 1830, the son Wilhelm Ludwig had the current, classicist two-storey mansion built by 1833. The so-called bird house on the middle of the three castle islands, which the lord of the castle had built for his ornithological collection until 1835 , to replace an orangery building built in 1717, dates from the same time . The architect Carl Wilhelm Theodor Freyse from Essen provided the designs . Some structural changes, such as the gable on the east side of the building, were added in 1904 under Egon von und zu Westerholt and Gysenberg . The standing on the north side of the forecastle island outbuildings, including his time in the Schlossfreiheit leading gate building were replaced by new buildings from 1867 to 1870. Only the building on the northeast corner, the “Bureau des Landrathes” was retained.
Since the beginning of the 20th century
In the further course of history, the possessions were bequeathed to their respective sons Otto and Johann and, in 1927, to his grandson Egon Reichsgraf von Westerholt-Gysenberg.
After the end of the Second World War, the Allied occupation authorities initially prevented the then lord of the castle, Egon , from managing and using his property on charges of being burdened by the Nazis . The manor house and the immediate outbuildings of the castle were used as accommodation by the American, later English, occupation troops. After the power of disposal was returned, the lord of the castle moved his family's apartment to the converted bird house . The mansion, which was now heavily used, was then used as a mountain apprentice home for a while. After that, the building stood empty for decades.
In 1993 the castle underwent a comprehensive restoration and was given a new use. Since then it has housed a hotel and café-restaurant. A large part of the former lock Parks is a golf club with 75 hectares wide 18-hole course used, the club house is to be found in the former buildings. Those wishing to marry also have the opportunity to be married in the knight's hall .
description
Castle complex
Westerholt Castle is an extensive complex, consisting of three castle islands, one behind the other from east to west, which are enclosed by a large English landscape garden . The water ditches of the facility are fed by the Holzbach.
The westernmost of the islands is completely covered by lawn, but used to be the location of the kitchen garden. It is connected to the central castle island east of it via a brick arched bridge. Its south side is the location of the so-called bird house , a two-storey unplastered brick building with a gable roof , which has served the count's family as a residence since 1955. A coat of arms stone above the entrance shows the year 1717 and comes from a no longer existing orangery building that replaced this house at the time. Opposite it is a modern new building on the north side, which houses today's Rentei . Symmetrical paths between the two buildings reveal the main features of the former baroque garden .
The easternmost of the three castle islands used to be the site of the outer bailey, but is now home to the actual castle buildings. The main house is on the west side and is a new building from the 19th century. The two-story plastered building with a tiled hipped roof has an elaborately designed façade on the east side. It has a three-axis central risalit with four pilasters of the Corinthian order and capitals made of natural stone. It takes up the three-door portal , to which a flight of stairs leads up. The risalit is crowned by a decorative gable in the Louis-quinze style. This was only installed in 1904 and replaced a three-axis attic storey . The two storeys of the building, the western front of which is completely unadorned, are architecturally separated from each other by a strong console cornice . At the north-west corner of the manor there is a square tower with a domed roof, the weather vane of which shows the year 1830.
The brick buildings adjoining the west wing at a right angle date from the second half of the 19th century. Only its easternmost part, the so-called "old Rentei", dates from before 1830.
Castle environment
Right next to the castle is the old village of Westerholt , which at the time belonged to Freiheit Westerholt. 58 half-timbered houses , restored according to historical models, are crowded in the narrow streets around the parish church of St. Martini and invite you to visit them with a medieval flair. The entire area has been a listed building since 1991 .
The local recreation area "Die Baut" extends right next to Westerholt Castle with the Westerholter Forest.
literature
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments . North Rhine-Westphalia . Volume 2: Westphalia. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich, Berlin 1969, pp. 593–594.
- Alexander Duncker : The rural residences, castles and residences of the knightly landowners in the Prussian monarchy along with the royal family, house, Fideicommiss and Schattull goods . Berlin 1857–1859, ( PDF; 200 kB ).
- Klaus Gorzny: Emscherschlösser. Castles, palaces and aristocratic residences in the Emscher Landscape Park . Piccolo, Marl 2001, ISBN 3-9801776-5-3 , pp. 79-81.
- Cornelia Kneppe: Westerholt 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. 343–346.
- August Kracht : Castles and palaces in the Sauerland, Siegerland and on the Ruhr . 1st edition. Knaur, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-426-04410-2 , pp. 302-307.
- Albert Weskamp: The old castle house and today's castle building . In: Vestischer Calendar . Volume 8, No. 8, Buersche Druckerei, Buer 1929, ISSN 0938-8745 , pp. 58-59.
- Albert Weskamp: Westerholt . In: The architectural and art monuments of the Recklinghausen district and the Recklinghausen, Bottrop, Buer, Gladbeck and Osterfeld districts . Schöningh, Münster 1929, ( The architectural and art monuments of Westphalia . Volume 39), pp. 459–469.
Web links
- Document registers from the archive of the Westerholt family at Westerholt Castle / digital Westphalian document database (DWUD)
- Website of the castle hotel
- Website of the Schloss Westerholt Golf Club
- House Westerholt in GenWiki
References and comments
- ↑ a b c d C. Kneppe: Schloss Westerholt , p. 344.
- ↑ The information fluctuates between 1769 and 1771.
- ^ A. Kracht. Castles and palaces in the Sauerland, Siegerland and on the Ruhr , p. 306.
- ↑ C. Kneppe: Schloss Westerholt , p. 346.
- ↑ Website of the Schloss Westerholt Golf Club ( memento of the original from April 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed March 14, 2011.
Coordinates: 51 ° 35 ′ 51 ″ N , 7 ° 5 ′ 25 ″ E