Sülz Castle

Haus Sülz (also: Burg Sülz) is a former fortified house in North Rhine-Westphalia. It belongs to the city of Lohmar and is located in the Rhein-Sieg district. The former moated castle stands in the valley floor of the Sülz, at an altitude of 70 meters above sea level between the districts of Lohmar-Donrath and Rösrath-Rambrücken.

The former knight's seat, whose foundation probably dates back to around 700 AD, is first mentioned in writing in a document by Archbishop Anno II from 1075, making it one of the oldest noble residences on the right bank of the Rhine in the former Sieg district. In the years prior, the property belonged to the Count Palatine, but he had gifted it to the newly founded Siegburg Abbey after 1064, which owned it for more than three centuries. Between 1396 and 1401, the Staël von Holstein family, whose ancestral seat was at Burg Holstein near Nümbrecht, acquired Burg Sülz, as evidenced by the 1585 authentication of a document from August 24, 1401. The first owner was the Bergisch hereditary marshal and knight Wilhelm Staël von Holstein, Lord of Eulenbroich; over the following centuries, his son Wilhelm, his half-brother Dietrich Staël von Holstein (documented for 1476), his son Wilhelm (documented for 1486), and Johan Stayll as his son and heir, and finally Wilhelm Staël, bailiff of Wesseling (documented for 1528), were among the lords of Haus Sülz. With the latter, the male line of the family died out.

In the middle of the 16th century, Wilhelm's nephew Adolf von Bellinghausen inherited the property, which, however, passed to the von Zweiffel family, who also owned Burg Wissem in Troisdorf, with the marriage of his daughter Helene in 1582. In 1641, Helene von Zweiffel married the imperial colonel and electoral Cologne privy councilor Reinart von Hillen zu Helden and lived with him at Haus Sülz until 1670. Their grandchildren sold the property in 1766 to Johann Paul La Valette St. George, who had the medieval castle house and the outer bailey demolished to erect new, representative buildings. However, only the southwestern wing with the gate passage and a three-story corner tower was realized. Even before 1827, the family sold the estate with a total of 701 Morgen of land to the Düren manufacturer Leopold Schoeller; at this time, 23 people lived at Haus Sülz at two hearths (1829), in 1840 there were still 12 (one hearth) and in 1872 nine people in one household. In 1885, Sülz had one residential building and ten inhabitants. Before 1900, the property was sold to the Linden family of Haus Venauen.

In 1935, ownership changed from Count Waldenberg to Balthasar and Hans Menzen. Hans Menzen built the left part of the building, now a listed monument, including the archway and corner tower (northwest wing) with the adjoining economic section, in the style of the right outer bailey.

In 1960, the property was sold to Josef Jockram.

Today, Haus Sülz is part of the Lohmar city's business park and houses a number of private companies, a restaurant, and apartments in a technology center.