Müllenark Castle

The Müllenark Estate, also known as Müllenark Castle, is located near Schophoven, a district of Inden (Rhineland) in the Düren district of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a protected monument.

In the 14th century, Müllenark was still a village with a parish church first mentioned in a document around 1300. The noble family of the same name was one of the most important in the Duchy of Jülich during the Middle Ages.

Gerhard von Molenark, mentioned in a document in 1129, is the first member of this family known by name. The most famous of the Molenarks is Heinrich I von Müllenark, who was Archbishop of Cologne from 1225 to 1238. During numerous armed conflicts between the Archbishops of Cologne and the Jülich princely house, Count Wilhelm IV of Jülich besieged Müllenark Estate in vain in 1234. He then withdrew to Rövenich to engage the Archbishop's army. However, peace was achieved through negotiations before a battle could take place.

In 1249, Mathilde von Molenark, none other than the niece of the Archbishops of Cologne Heinrich von Molenark and Konrad von Hochstaden, married Walram von Jülich, a son of Wilhelm IV. Father and son seized the unique opportunity and took possession of the Müllenark Estate, but ultimately had to return it to the rightful owner, Konrad von Molenark. The property subsequently remained a Cologne fief. However, the Counts of Jülich, who found this archiepiscopal enclave in the middle of their own sphere of influence extremely inconvenient, later repossessed the castle. The dispute with the Molenark family culminated in a lawsuit, which ended in 1317 with a judgment in favor of this noble family.

In the 14th century, the families Hoen von Müllenark, later the Banritzer von Müllenark, who lived in the castle, were no longer referred to as archiepiscopal but as Jülich vassals. After the death of the last Banritzer von Müllenark at the beginning of the 15th century, his brothers-in-law Dietrich von Langel and Johann von Eynenberg divided Müllenark and the associated lands. Through marriage to von Langel's daughter, Dietrich von Hanxler came into possession of one half of the property in 1466.

Gerhard von Hanxler, Dietrich's son, was very important for the history of the property. In the first half of the 16th century, he carried out important structural changes at Müllenark. The foundations of the main castle built under his patronage are still preserved today. Especially impressive is the battery tower at the northeast corner of the main castle, still existing in its substructure, with its four-meter-thick brick walls. It could not be breached even with the gunpowder artillery that emerged in the 15th century. The battery tower lost its function of protecting the north front of the originally much narrower outer bailey with its reconstruction in the 17th century.

Heinrich von Mirbach, Gotthard von Hanxler's son-in-law, was the next owner of the estate. After the Mirbach line died out at Müllenark in 1626, a dispute arose between two inheritance parties. The Spanish Colonel von Rovelli promptly took possession of the property by force of arms.

In 1668, Johann Wilhelm von Metternich became the new owner of Müllenark Estate. Metternich was the heir of the Eynenberg family, who had owned the property together with the von Langel family in 1466. However, neither the von Eynenberg nor their heirs had paid much attention to Müllenark in the following period. Johann Wilhelm von Metternich, on the other hand, reunited the property after more than 200 years by purchasing the Mirbach share. In 1670, Metternich also built the three-winged baroque new building of the outer bailey, whose west front with the large basket-arch gate is no less than 85 meters long.

The Metternich family became heavily indebted in the following century. According to a court order, Müllenark was released for public sale in 1769. Why the property nevertheless remained in the possession of the Metternichs is not entirely clear. It seems that the related family von Villers-Masbourg had financially supported the bankrupt residents of Müllenark.

After the death of Anna Maria von Metternich in 1818, the property fell to the von Villers-Masbourg family. In the last quarter of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century, Müllenark, which was no longer the residence of a noble family, deteriorated. In 1909, the Honnerbach family from Hamm acquired it at an auction of the Count Villers-Masburg estates. Before the First World War, the Dürener Metallwerke acquired it. Around 1920, a new residential building was erected on the site of the old, ruinous manor house.

The Dürener Metallwerke sold Müllenark Estate in 1930 to the Axer family, who sold it in 1932 to the Schagen family. In 1952, the Rolfes family acquired the property, which passed to the association "Union for the Help of People in Need in Society" at the end of the 1970s. Since November 1, 1980, RWE has been the new owner. The Lanckohr family managed Müllenark since 1957. After the transfer of ownership of Müllenark Estate to the current RWE, the Lanckohr family ceased management. Only two residential units are still inhabited at Müllenark Estate; otherwise, the buildings are fallow but in good condition. The lands have been leased by RWE to a farmer from the municipality of Inden. The estate still includes approximately 7.8 hectares of land.