Landsberg Castle

Schloss Landsberg stands on a spur of land 65 metres above the Ruhr valley, near the town of Ratingen on the edge of the Ruhrgebiet. Its medieval core dates from the late 13th century, when Count Adolf V of Berg built a fortress to guard the important bridge linking Kettwig and Ratingen. For more than six centuries the Lords of Landsberg held the site, apart from a 120-year interruption, until August Thyssen bought it in 1903 and turned it into a grand residence. The castle’s present shape comes from Thyssen’s alterations in the early 20th century, blending Renaissance, Jugendstil and Historicist styles. A 33-metre-high bergfried of Ruhr sandstone still dominates the south-west corner, its walls up to 2.3 metres thick. A 17th-century gatehouse carries the Landsberg-Meschede and Landsberg-Hatzfeld alliance coats of arms, recalling the family’s return in 1837 under Engelbert von Landsberg-Velen. Visitors walk through a half-moon courtyard bordered by a 13-metre-high ring wall and a round well-tower. Inside, the bergfried’s ground floor holds the Thyssen family vault, lined with travertine and onyx windows, while the first floor chapel is painted in neo-Gothic frescoes by Oskar Wichtendahl. The former living quarters on the upper floor show late Historicist interiors with early 20th-century decoration, while below, medieval vaulted cellars now serve as seminar rooms.