Schloss Baldeney: A Historic Castle Estate in Essen, Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- German, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
Schloss Baldeney is a historic castle estate in Essen, Germany, developed from a medieval moated castle beside the Ruhr. A motte, a raised earth mound carrying a fortified structure, probably existed here before 1226, when Count Adolf I of the Mark ordered the construction of a fortified house. The estate was held as a fief of Werden Abbey, an ecclesiastical institution to which land was granted in return for hereditary service and allegiance.
Medieval origins and noble ownership
In 1337, the castle’s owner, Theodoricus von Leythe, and his son Everhard endowed a chapel. The von Leythe family retained the castle until 1432. It then passed through female lines to several owners. Some of these lords held the hereditary offices of marshal of Werden and chamberlain of the Princely Abbey of Essen. These were aristocratic court offices connected with military and household administration.
Among the recorded owners were the knight Kracht Stecke of Mylendonk and Meiderich and Arndt von Vittinghoff, who acquired the estate in 1445. The von Eyll family held it from 1563, followed by the von Neuhoff family from 1612 and the von Drimborn family from 1655.
Expansion and nineteenth-century remodelling
Imperial Captain Baron Franz Ernst von dem Bottlenberg, known as Schirp, became lord of the castle in 1747. His family retained the estate until 1968. During the seventeenth century, a western wing was added to the residential tower, and an eastern wing followed in the eighteenth century. The complex was substantially remodelled in the nineteenth century, when an agricultural building was also erected to the north. The estate mill was demolished in 1870.
Modern use and preservation
From 1921, the buildings were leased, first as a school retreat and later mainly as a restaurant. After the Baldeneysee was completed in 1933, the restaurant became a popular excursion destination, and the lake took its name from the castle.
After the estate was sold in the 1960s, its new owners undertook extensive restoration following a period of deterioration. The castle chapel was restored in 1992. A restaurant later operated on the grounds, but a fire in September 2004 damaged it, after which the complex remained unused. Following the owner’s insolvency, an Essen real-estate agent acquired the estate in August 2011. Schloss Baldeney is protected as both an architectural monument and an archaeological monument, reflecting its surviving buildings and its association with the medieval castle site and former moat.
Remains
The castle stands on the northern shore of the Baldeneysee in Bredeney, Essen. Built of Ruhr sandstone, the surviving complex includes the main building, a former agricultural building, the adjoining chapel, and a separate former service structure. The former moat was filled in from about 1890 onward, but its broad ditches remain recognizable in the terrain. An original cadastral survey from 1875 shows the ditches and agricultural buildings that once occupied the estate.
Main castle complex
Residential tower
The oldest surviving part is an almost square residential tower dating from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. It rises three storeys beneath a hipped roof. A flight of steps leads to the portal. The coat of arms of the von Bottlenberg barons above the entrance, the cross-window, and the windows with dressed-stone surrounds belong to the nineteenth-century remodelling.
West and east wings
The tower is joined by wings on its western and eastern sides. The west wing dates from the seventeenth century, although it was completely remodelled in the nineteenth century. It has two storeys, a vaulted cellar, a hipped roof, and sandstone window surrounds. The east wing was added in the eighteenth century and also received a complete nineteenth-century remodelling. It has two storeys and no cellar.
Remise
North-west of the main building stands the two-storey, three-winged structure known as the Remise. Built around the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it formerly contained stables and servants’ quarters. Large round-arched entrances dominate the ground floor, while a centrally placed battlemented tower gives the building its historicist, or historically revived, castle-like appearance.
Chapel and cemetery
Chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene
The small chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene adjoins the former agricultural building on its western side. Its exterior reflects a sixteenth-century remodelling, while the interior furnishings date from 1821. The porch, supported by columns, probably belongs to the nineteenth century. The chapel is administered by the St Mark parish in Essen-Bredeney.
Castle cemetery
A small cemetery lies directly beside the chapel within a low rubble-stone wall. By the nineteenth century, it served as the burial place of the castle’s owners. The surviving grave slabs are heavily weathered, and their names can no longer be read.
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