Schloss Wissen

Schloss Wissen stands south-east of Weeze in the Kleve district, beside the left bank of the Niers. A moat about a metre deep surrounds the whole site. The castle began as a 14th-century tower house and has been rebuilt several times, most recently in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the buildings were repaired and modernised inside. The family von Loë has lived here for five centuries. Vincenz Statz led a neo-Gothic remodelling between 1876 and 1886. Earlier, in the 16th century, the Dutch Renaissance style was introduced, and later the Baroque left its mark. The complex includes a three-winged outer court, a core castle with main house and chapel, a mill and a large park with an orangery. The outer court’s oldest parts date from the 14th century. Its north and west wings show Gothic brickwork, and a covered fighting gallery with arrow slits runs along the top of the north wing. The main house’s south wing still has walls two metres thick. The chapel, designed by Statz and built between 1874 and 1878, contains intact neo-Gothic fittings, stained glass by Hardman & Co., and an altar by Franz Wüsten. The mill, built in 1545, now serves as a meeting room for the estate’s hotel guests.