Kalkum Castle

Kalkum Castle is located in the north of Düsseldorf, in the district of the same name. Today, part of the main state archive of North Rhine-Westphalia is housed in the castle. It is also used for classical concerts and other cultural events.

Predecessors of the Kalkum district were already mentioned in 309 by Constantine the Great. The Carolingians had possessions there. In 852, the Carolingian king Arnulf gifted real estate in Calicheim - today's Kalkum - to a convent of canonesses from the Harz region. The possessions included a church, a manor farm with a mill and estates, and a forest. The manor farm eventually developed into the castle.

In the 12th century, the Kalkum noble family emerged, first documented in 1176. From it later came the Lohausen (cf. Düsseldorf-Lohausen) and Leuchtenberg families. Around 1500, the then newly built House Kalkum was owned by the von Winkelhausen family, from whom it passed to the von Hatzfeld family in the first half of the 18th century through marriage.

The current four-winged moated castle was built at the beginning of the 19th century in the Baroque style, but integrated older building fabric.

The landscape garden surrounding the castle was laid out at the beginning of the 19th century by Maximilian Weyhe. The Kalkum Forest also still exists.

In the castle park, a memorial stone with a bust in a garden pavilion commemorates Ferdinand Lassalle, who represented the then castle resident Sophie von Hatzfeldt as a lawyer in her divorce proceedings, and a memorial plaque in the castle courtyard also commemorates Sophie von Hatzfeldt herself.