Gesselen Castle

Haus Gesselen, also known as Haus te Gesselen, is a former knight's manor in Wetten, a district of the Lower Rhenish town of Kevelaer. It stands on the right bank of the Niers and is one of the most completely preserved manor houses in the Lower Rhine region. Through various noble families, it finally came into the possession of the Counts of Hoensbroech in the 17th century, who did not use the estate as a residence but leased it for agricultural purposes. Over the following years, time took its toll on the manor house, and the lowering of the groundwater due to the regulation of the Niers in the 1930s did the rest, so that Haus Gesselen was in danger of collapsing in the 1980s. Extensive renovation and restoration work from 1987 saved the monument from final decay.

The estate was first mentioned in a document in 1247 with "Arnoldus miles te Gestelen". At that time, it was a Guelders fief. In 1349, a mill belonging to the estate, the "molen te Ghestelen", was mentioned. In 1403, Haus Gesselen was owned by Derik von Pallant, whose granddaughter Aleyd brought it to her husband Arndt von Eyll in 1498. At that time, the complex already consisted of a manor house, an outer bailey, and two mills. Previously, it had been mentioned for the first time in 1424 as a house ("huys tot Gestelen"), i.e., as a fortified noble residence. After Arnd von Eyll, his two sons followed as owners.

Through the heiress Loeffe, the property came to her husband Wilhelm von Hornum. He wanted to make his house available to Spanish troops during the Eighty Years' War, but the governor of Geldern, Baron Johann Philipp von Hohensax, who was in Dutch service, thwarted the plans by having Haus Gesselen attacked and plundered on July 17, 1584. Von Hornum was captured and only released in December of that year after a ransom payment of 6000 guilders. The severely damaged building was repaired soon after 1584 and rebuilt and extended in 1615. In the course of this, the former stair tower at the east corner was also demolished.

In 1648, Lyffart von Asselt received the enfeoffment of Haus Gesselen. His son Lyffart Engelbert sold it in 1668 to Christian Meenen, who repaired it and built another oil mill. He then sold the complex in 1671 to Arnold Adriaan von und zu Hoensbroech, who also owned Hoensbroek Castle and Haag Castle. Since his family therefore did not use the house as a residence, Gesselen remained only a tenant farm from this point on, which was run as an agricultural enterprise. In the 18th century, as a knight's manor, it had the right to attend the Landtag. The outer bailey, verifiable since 1440, was replaced by more modern buildings.

In 1932, the Deselaers family acquired the property. Due to the regulation of the Niers in the 1930s and the simultaneous leveling of the moats, there was a dramatic lowering of the groundwater level, as a result of which the pile foundations of the house began to rot. The entire building fabric was enormously unstable, and the resulting significant wall damage was first repaired in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the stability of the building was only permanently restored during restorations since the late 1980s by stabilizing concrete piles. The work was initiated by the couple Keuck, who have owned the house since 1987. They saved the old knight's seat from final demise.