House Caen

Haus Caen stands beside the road between Wachtendonk and Straelen in the Lower Rhine region. It began as a typical fortified farmstead before becoming a small water castle on piles. In the 1660s the de Varo family rebuilt the manor in the style of French pavilion palaces. The house is privately owned and cannot be entered, but its setting is remarkable. Water ditches fed by the Niers surround the two-storey building, which has a yellow wash and a mansard roof with curved dormers. A chapel on the first floor was consecrated in 1666 by the Bishop of Roermond. Nearby, a four-winged forecourt contains an 18th-century half-timbered mill and one of the few surviving 19th-century dovecotes. An English landscape garden of about 100 hectares spreads around the house. It holds rare trees and a private cemetery with a vault. The park shelters many bird species and was declared a nature reserve in 1955. The forecourt’s dovecote, once home to 34 pairs of pigeons, now serves as a dwelling.