Kalbeck Castle

The current castle complex consists of the manor house located to the north, to which a square tower with a bell dome is attached to the west. It represents the remains of the former residential wing in the west.

South of the manor house stands a two-winged building complex that once housed the castle's economic buildings. From its west wing, a long, stone arched bridge leads into the restored Baroque garden in the French style. There, four symmetrically arranged flowerbeds enclose a circular water basin in their center.

The first documented mention of Kalbeck took place in 1326, when Count Rainald II of Geldern enfeoffed "den hoff te Calbeke" to Dirk Loef III of Kleve. The feudal lordship over Kalbeck later repeatedly changed between the Duchy of Geldern and the Duchy of Kleve, so that various vassals were found there accordingly.

In 1647, when the Morrien family ruled over the castle and the surrounding farms, Kalbeck was elevated to the rank of an independent lordship by the Great Elector, which in 1722 counted 187 inhabitants and only lost its independence in 1928 with its incorporation into Weeze. The Morriens came from Westphalia and were elevated to the status of Imperial Barons in 1670. Among other things, they owned the lordship of Nordkirchen in Münsterland and were also the lords of Lüdinghausen.

The heiress and lady of Kalbeck married Friedrich von Vittinghoff-Schell in 1838, whose family had lived at Schellenberg Castle in Essen-Rellinghausen since 1452, and brought the castle into the marriage. After a coal shaft was sunk a short distance from the Essen castle at the end of the 19th century and a cable car for transporting coal ran only 100 meters from the castle, the Vittinghoff-Schell family made Kalbeck their main residence.

Through the marriage of M. J. Freiin von Vittinghof-Schell, the niece of Weeze mayor Felix von Vittinghoff-Schell, Kalbeck Castle came into the possession of the Spies von Büllesheim family. Since mid-2001, the complex has been inhabited by Antoinette Freifrau von Elverfeldt-Ulm, née Spies von Büllesheim, and her family.

Calbeck, mentioned in documents in 1326, was probably initially a farmstead and was only expanded into a moated castle in the 14th century. It was located opposite today's guesthouse "Jan an de Fähre", where the Kalbecker Ley flows into the Niers.

A large fire on New Year's Eve 1799/1800 severely damaged the complex, and the owners had to live in the outer bailey from then on. Surviving drawings by Cornelis Pronk and his pupil Jan de Beijer from 1731 and 1743 respectively still show the old building stock before its destruction.

When the von Vittinghoff-Schell family decided at the beginning of the 20th century to move their residence to Kalbeck, they no longer wanted to use the ruinous old complex and had a new castle built in the historicist style in the forest one kilometer away between 1906 and 1910. The plans for this were drawn up by the architect Hermann Schaedtler, who used Oberwerries Castle in Hamm, built in the 17th century, as a model. The new building consisted of two two-winged building units, the manor house with living and reception rooms and the outer bailey as an economic wing. The west wings of the two buildings were only separated by today's courtyard entrance, so that the arrangement of the buildings gave the impression of a three-winged overall complex.

Due to wartime damage, most of the castle burned out in February 1945, with the southern manor house wing being the most severely affected and only half rebuilt in the post-war period. The first floor with the castle chapel and the library was preserved, while the rest was converted into a large, open-plan hall. The western wing was renovated according to today's living requirements, but nothing of the original furnishings of the building remains.

In the course of the reconstruction, the approximately four-hectare castle park was also redesigned in 1950. A rose garden in the Baroque style was created on the garden area west of the house and made accessible to the public in 1965. Its symmetrically arranged beds are framed by low boxwood hedges. Until 1997, the "Kalbeck Rose Show" took place there every year on the first and second Sunday in July, but it had to be discontinued due to increasing aging and the death of a large part of the roses. The proceeds served the Rhein-Maas Sick Brotherhood for the care of the sick and disabled on pilgrimages, especially to Lourdes.

Since 2001, the castle buildings have been gradually renovated and rebuilt. After completion of the work, they are to be made available for rental. The entire castle grounds are fenced and explicitly designated as private at the entrance gate. Access for tourist purposes is not permitted.