Blegge Castle

Haus Blegge or Haus Blech is an old knight's seat in the Paffrath district of Bergisch Gladbach. It was built as a moated castle. Since 1979, it has housed the Schlosspark-Klinik of the Teutonic Order, which has rented the building from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Hiltrup, who operate a retirement home in the adjacent castle park.

The Predecessor Castle

The oldest document indicating the existence of Paffrath dates from 1160. It shows that in Paffrath there was a spiritual manorial lordship of the cathedral chapter with an incorporated church. Close to the church at that time stood a castle to protect the population, which formed a single property unit with the church. This castle fell into disrepair early on and lost its status as a knight's seat to the later built, somewhat secluded Haus Blech, which is already mentioned in documents from 1183 and 1262. Montanus mentions for the year 1183 a knight Sigwin von Blech, for the year 1260 Sybodo von Blech, and for the period 1273–1280 his son Engelbert von Blech as knights of Burg Blech.

In the 15th century, the Lords of Blech seem to have died out. The estate then passed to the Lords of Menzlingen. Pastor Voeghe mentions in 1454 in his Red Missal Ulrich von Menzlingen, who was a cellarer and court official in Paffrath and lived at Haus Blech. Konrad von Menzlingen sold the property on June 9, 1463, to Count Palatine Stefan bei Rhein, who, as Cologne's provost, donated it to the cathedral chapter, which in 1540 gave it in hereditary lease to Wilhelm von der Neven.

Until the 17th century, the Lords von der Reven remained owners of Haus Blech. The Thirty Years' War swept across the land. Haus Blegge was also not spared. In 1643 it is reported: "The inhabitants of Paffrath fled into the forests. Towards the end of June, shortly before the harvest, even the noble Haus Blech stood empty and abandoned." Around 1670, a dispute over the inheritance of Blech emerged. Since no direct male descendants of the von der Reven family still lived at Blech, the ownership rights were to go to the closest blood relatives. Half of the inheritance initially went to the von Calcum-Lohausen family. However, the dispute continued until 1695, with the result that the Baroness von Lohausen received six-sevenths of the inheritance of Blech. The last seventh and 200 Cologne thalers went to the Lords von Reven, who, however, no longer lived at Blech. Later, the estate came to the von Kessel zum Bodelberg.

Today's Haus Blegge

With a deed of purchase dated March 15, 1752, the Gladbach lime manufacturer Johann Jakob Bützler (1707–1767) acquired the knight's seat, whose residential building he had erected a few years later in its present baroque form. In doing so, he retained the surrounding moat of the previous castle. He chose Johann Georg Leydel as the architect. Johann Jakob Bützler's daughter Anna Margarethe became the heiress of the estate during his lifetime. She married Johann Baptist de Caluwé, who came from Flanders, in 1764. From this marriage, in 1774, the heir to the estate, Johann Franz Wilhelm de Caluwé, known as Johann Wilhelm, emerged. He fell in love with the housemaid Anna Maria Schmalzgrüber. Johann Wilhelm's father opposed a union between the two because, in his opinion, Anna Maria was not of appropriate social standing. Nevertheless, they both married on May 12, 1800, and moved into Haus Blech together. The marriage produced twelve children, among them Anna Gertrud Jacobine Hubertine, known as Gertrude. She married Vinzenz Jakob von Zuccalmaglio on December 22, 1835, and lived with him at Haus Blech until 1848.

After the death of Johann Franz Wilhelm de Caluwé on October 5, 1853, none of the heirs wanted to take over the large property. Sales followed successively to the following new owners: first Karl Wilhelm Hermann Wever, in 1863 Friedrich Adolf Schmidt, in 1865 his son Ernst Schmidt, whose heirs sold it in 1936 to the (unrelated) merchant Wilhelm Schmidt. Since 1951, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Hiltrup have been the owners of Haus Blech, which at the beginning of the 20th century bore the name Haus Blegge. This renaming is due to the fact that the name Blech does not sound significant enough for a moated castle and the knight Sibodo von Blech appears as Bleghe in the documents.

Architectural Description

The manor house with a main building is surrounded by water. A single-story coach house with a round-arched gate entrance is located in front. The manor house rises above a high plinth on a square floor plan. The plastered building of two stories is covered with a mansard hip roof. The two laterally projecting towers, of the same height as the roof, are crowned with curved hoods. The portal in the central axis is accessible via a grand staircase. A masonry bridge leads to the forecourt, which was enclosed with a wrought-iron grille in 1755.