Schloss und Landschaftspark Steinhöfel

Schloss Steinhöfel stands in the village of Steinhöfel in Brandenburg’s Oder-Spree district. Built in the late classical style, it is surrounded by an English-style park that has long been counted among the finest noble seats in the region. The family of von Massow enlarged the estate repeatedly from the late 18th century onwards. After careful restoration around the year 2000, the ensemble now serves as a protected hotel. Earlier owners included the von Wulffen family, who erected a manor house about 1730, and the Prussian minister Freiherr Joachim Christian von Blumenthal, who bought the property in 1774. The estate’s significance rests on its architectural and landscape innovations. David Gilly, assisted by his son Friedrich, transformed the existing manor between 1790 and 1795 into an early classical showpiece. The design influenced later rural building across Prussia. Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and his wife Luise admired the place so much in 1794 that they commissioned Gilly to build their own summer residence at Paretz. Theodor Fontane visited in 1862 and later described the ensemble in his writings. Visitors today find a two-storey main building with low side wings and a flat hipped roof. The entrance is marked by a three-bay section with pilasters, while the façade remains largely unadorned except for rosette discs. A long pond, framed by meadows and trees, stretches before the house, its far end spanned by a small bridge. A park lined with garden architecture—temples, a Chinese pavilion, a grotto, a waterfall and an aviary—surrounds the ensemble. The hotel offers around fifty beds in twenty-five rooms that follow the original floor plan, many enjoying views over the park.