Schloss Lembeck

Lembeck Castle stands on an island in a 190-by-160-metre pond formed by damming the Lembeck meadow stream. The water lies within the Hohe Mark Nature Park, where the Hagen and Kippheide forests meet the northern edge of the Ruhr region. The name comes from Low German ‘Lehmbach’, meaning ‘clay brook’, recalling the boggy land on which it was built. A straight east–west axis 500 metres long runs through the complex, linking an avenue to the outer bailey. The entire site is reached by bridges that cross the wide water. The outer bailey is a two-winged structure 110 metres wide, capped by a gatehouse whose keystone shows the coats of arms of Dietrich Conrad Adolf von Westerholt and his wife, dated 1692. The southern wing ends in single-storey towers with Welsh hoods and keyhole-shaped basement loops. Inside, the three-storey manor house was built in two stages between 1674 and 1679, its stone-arched bridge leading to a Renaissance portal inspired by Florentine palaces. A 14-step sandstone staircase rises to a 19th-century terrace and the main entrance. Visitors find the manor’s interiors panelled in dark oak, except the Fidelitas Cabinet and small salon. A 45-metre corridor displays five Flemish tapestries of Odysseus and Iphigenia, and the south tower room contains a 1563 fireplace salvaged from the burnt north wing. The chapel tower, altered many times since the 17th century, once served as a prison and later a wine cellar. Beyond the mansion, a wooden bridge leads to the park, its piers crowned by putti holding the coats of arms of Merveldt and Westerholt-Lembeck.