Drove Castle

The first known lord of Drove was Reinhard von Drove, who is mentioned in 1239. The old castle was located southeast of the church. Today, only a rectangular area enclosed by moats can be seen.

In the middle of the 13th century, the von Müllenark-Hunghen family came into possession of the moated castle and the sub-lordship (Drove was a sub-lordship in the Duchy of Jülich). After the von Roir family, Bernhard von Weworden, called Bulver, became owner in 1439. Through marriage, the castle came to the von Elmpt family. This family built the so-called Panghshaus in Drove. After decades of inheritance disputes between the von Weworden and von Elmpt families, Arnold Heinrich von Weworden captured Bertram von Elmpt in the Panghshaus.

During the Thirty Years' War, the castle was severely damaged. During the wars against the French King Louis XIV, the castle suffered greatly again in 1673 and was never fully repaired. On May 21, 1728, the lordship of Drove was divided. Wolf Christof von Rohe received the upper village and Leversbach. The ancestral castle remained in the possession of the von Holtrop family. It was no longer habitable in the 19th century and completely fell into disrepair.

The von Rohe family built the new moated Drove Castle, which is still preserved today, from 1728 to 1741. It is a three-winged, two-story Baroque complex made of quarry stone with hip roofs. In front of the manor house is a formerly three-winged outer bailey, which has been single-winged since a large fire in 1893. Around 1920, a single-story extension was added to the southeast and southwest corners of the manor house. The servants' quarters in the inner courtyard of the castle date from 1929. The extension at the southwest corner of the manor house was so thoroughly destroyed in the Second World War that it was not rebuilt. The other war damages were repaired. The castle is now in private ownership and inhabited.

Heinrich Nauen created a monumental cycle of paintings for Drove Castle. Nauen received the commission for this in 1912 from the Aachen art historian Edwin Suermondt. For two years, the artist was occupied with the execution of six large-format canvases, which are considered his main expressionist work.