Gut Stellichte

Gut Stellichte stands in the village of Stellichte, part of Walsrode in the Heidekreis district of Lower Saxony. It began as a medieval castle built early in the 14th century by the von Schlepegrell family. By 1405 the dukes of Lüneburg had enlarged it into a castle that the city of Lüneburg complained about. In 1427 the bishops of Verden took it over and turned it into their administrative seat. In 1470 Duke Otto V gave the place to Heinrich Behr, whose family still owns it today. The site shows layers from each century. A 1650 engraving by Matthäus Merian depicts a brick house with stepped gables, timber wings and a stair tower surrounded by wide moats. The present main building dates from 1703–04, a broad two-storey baroque manor that reuses the old cellars. A 1903 west wing and a 1910 east wing were added in matching style, along with a six-column veranda and a semicircular teahouse with a bell-shaped roof. North of the house lies a 17th-century timber-framed court-house beside the Lehrde stream. Visitors walk across a granite bridge of 1860 into the inner bailey. The moats enclose a rectangle of about 74 by 67 metres. South of the house fishponds border the garden, and to the east meadows stretch toward the remains of an 18th-century summerhouse. Inside, the baroque ceilings carry painted decoration recorded in the Corpus of Baroque Ceiling Painting in Germany. The family’s sandstone mausoleum, built in 1902–03, stands on the northern edge of the estate, its octagonal lantern rising above the fields.