Steinhausen Castle

Steinhausen Castle is located on the Muttental mining trail in the Bommern district of Witten, south of the Ruhr river. Its landmark is a round tower on the east side of the castle grounds, which currently lacks its spire.

Built in the 13th century by the Lords of Witten, it served to secure a crossing of the Ruhr. Through marriage, the estate came into the possession of the Staël von Holstein family in the 15th century and remained in their possession for nearly three centuries before passing to the Barons von Elverfeldt. After rapid changes of ownership during the 19th century, the Witten entrepreneur Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg acquired the building ensemble in 1893 and had it extensively altered in the Historicist style. He thus gave it its present appearance.

Today, the castle complex houses, among other things, a restaurant and artist studios. It can only be viewed from the outside. However, the small castle park is open to the public.

Steinhausen Castle dates back to a former hilltop castle, first mentioned in a document in 1297. It was owned by the Lords of Witten, of whom Hermann and Everhard are the first bearers of this family name and were in the service of Count Dietrich von Altena-Isenberg in 1248. They were tasked with ensuring the security of a ford and ferry across the Ruhr. For this purpose, Everhard's son, Bernhard von Witten, built a fortified house, mentioned in documents as Steenhus, on the banks of the Ruhr towards the end of the 13th century. The current complex received its name from this Steenhus. A division deed from 1321 describes the appearance of the castle at that time. According to this, it was a stately double castle complex, which also included a private chapel. However, this castle was destroyed in 1434 by troops from the imperial city of Dortmund, consisting of 700 landsknechts and 20 horsemen. Rötger von Witten (also Rotger) then had the present Haus Witten – then still called Burg Berge – built on the opposite bank of the Ruhr around 1470.

Through the marriage of the heiress Jutta to Lutter Staël von Holstein, the knight's seat of Steinhausen came into his family's possession in 1464. In 1529, Hardenberg Staël von Holstein, who operated a coal mine there, had the complex rebuilt. A descendant of Hardenberg, the Hildesheim canon Robert Staël von Holstein, had a stepped-gable house built in 1607, along with a widely visible tower. After the family died out in the male line, the noblewoman Helena Margareta and her niece Maria Helena, both canonesses in Asbeck, were the last members of the Staël von Holstein zu Steinhausen line. They gifted the property to their nephew, Baron Friedrich Christian von Elverfeldt, in 1732.

In 1810, Levin von Elverfeldt had a new manor house built on the site in the Neoclassical style. His descendants sold the complex in 1851 to two Dutch manufacturers, Jan Jakob van Braam and Gerrit Vriese, who were followed as owners by the Fromberg and den Tex families. In 1893, Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg acquired the castle and the associated lands. He had the entire complex transformed into a romantic knight's estate in the Historicist style, according to the taste of the time, thus giving the buildings their current form. From the Dünkelberg family, the complex eventually passed through marriage to the Oberste-Frielinghaus family, who are still the owners.

From 2004 to May 2009, the stepped-gable house was used by the Bommern Local History and Heritage Association, which had its work and archive rooms on the upper floor. On the ground floor, it operated the "Heimatstübchen" with an exhibition of objects from Bommern's history.

The manor house has served as a restaurant since 2001. A mountain bike school is located in the former cowshed, while other rooms of the ensemble are used as artist studios. A permanent exhibition of Shona sculptures from Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, has been on display in the castle park and an adjacent former farm building since May 2002.