Crange Castle (Ruin) (Herne)

Haus Crange was a former moated castle in today's district of Crange in Herne.

Duke Adolf II of Cleves had it built around 1440 on an island in the Emscher lowlands and presumably on St. Lawrence's Day (August 10) of 1441 enfeoffed Derick van Eykel, bailiff of the Märkisch office of Bochum, with the house "geheiten ten Krangh". Krang meant river bend.

North of the castle was the chapel of Haus Crange, the Laurentiuskapelle, which was consecrated in 1449. It was demolished as early as 1873. Its winged altarpiece from the Soest school of painting is now in Ahausen Castle.

After the family von Eickel zu Crange, the v. Rump family inherited the property in 1637. In 1761, the building burned down and was renovated with a classical interior design. In 1812, the owners moved out and the castle was leased. Through inheritance, the Counts of Landsberg-Velen acquired the property, which they sold to the canal construction company in 1905. Via Essener Steinkohle AG, the house came into the possession of the industrialist Robert Heitkamp in 1962.

The building increasingly fell into disrepair, and in 1991 a support association, Förderverein Haus Crange e.V., was founded to save the building. Despite various plans and provisional measures (monument protection 1984, acquisition of the building by the city of Herne 1992, ideas competition for a restoration/new or extensions), the house is now dilapidated.

The ruins are to become part of a park in the future, but are currently inaccessible due to structural defects.

A few meters from the ruin, the Cranger Kirmes takes place, which dates back to the horse market on St. Lawrence's Day, where wild horses from the Emscherbruch were sold since the 16th century.