Nordkirchen Castle, Versailles of Westphalia
Monday, 30 May 2011 - 03:08 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union General , Architecture , Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Main building with Venus Island in front © Mbdortmund
🔊 Listen to this Post
Schloss Nordkirchen in the Gemeinde Nordkirchen in Kreis Coesfeld, Westphalia, Germany, built in 1703 to 1734, is known as the “Versailles of Westphalia” as it is the largest of the partly moated Wasserschlösser in that region. It was originally one of the residences of the Prince-bishops of Munster.
The present Baroque schloss is the successor of a true moated Wasserschloss built in the sixteenth century for the von Morrien. The present structure was raised on the site in several building campaigns for the Fürstbischof Friedrich Christian von Plettenberg zu Lenhausen and his successor Fürstbischof Ferdinand von Plettenberg. It passed in 1833 to the Esterházy who alienated it to Duke Engelbert Marie von Arenberg in 1903. In 1933 the newly founded Arenberg-Nordkirchen GmbH assumed possession. From 1958 the schloss was the site of the business school Fachhochschule für Finanzen Nordrhein-Westfalen. It was purchased outright by Nordrhein-Westfalen in 1959, to which the neighboring Oranienburg and the park were subsequently added, as well as the southern area of deer park including a shelter belt of more than 1000 hectares (2,470 acres) of surrounding woodland, added in 2004. Parts of the interior are open to the public, as are the parterres and the surrounding park. The chapel may be rented for weddings.European Garden Heritage Network .
Main building with Venus Island in front © Mbdortmund
The schloss stands on a rectangular island surrounded by a broad moat-like canal. At the island’s four corners stand four small free-standing pavilions.
The garden front gives onto a landscaped park of some 170 hectares (420 acres), reached through a formal parterre of scrolling broderie on axis, flanked by expanses of lawn. The gardens and the surrounded woods are peopled with a multitude of lifesize marble statues of which the first deliveries were made in 1721 from the Munich sculptor Johann Wilhelm Gröninger. Other sculptures were delivered by Panhoff and Charles Manskirch. Further sculptures were added during the restoration in neo-Baroque style, undertaken in 1903-07.
Read more on
Schloss Nordkirchen (German only),
Nordkirchen Community (German only),
Schloss Restaurant Nordkirchen (German only) and
Wikipedia Nordkirchen Castle . Learn more about the
use of photos . To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organisations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Travel Risk Map -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
VIDEO
Recommended posts:
[caption id="attachment_234157" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © PaulT (Gunther Tschuch)/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Łęknica is a border town in western Poland, one of the two gminas of Żary County in Lubusz Voivodeship. Muskau Park (Park Mużakowski), a Polish-German World Heritage Site, stretches north of the town centre.
The town is situated in the Polish part of the historic Upper Lusatia region, in the broad valley of the Neisse river, which forms the border with Germany. A bridge across the river c...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_239939" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Cathedra Petri at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican © Ricardo André Frantz/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]A cathedra is the raised throne of a bishop in the early Christian basilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop's throne. With time, the related term cathedral became synonymous with the "seat", or principal church, of a bishopric. The word in modern languages derives from a normal Greek word kathédra, meaning "seat", w...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_209218" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Friejose/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Pompano Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just to the north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The city's population is at 112,000. Located 35 miles north of Miami, it is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which is home to an estimated 6.2 million people. Pompano Beach is curre...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_168438" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Ras al-Khaimah - Al Hamra Fort Hotel & Beach Resort © Pedantin9/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The United Arab Emirates, sometimes simply called the Emirates, is a federal absolute monarchy in Western Asia at the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula on the Arabian Gulf, bordering Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, as well as sharing maritime borders with Qatar to the west and Iran to the north. In 2013, the UAE's population was 9.2 million, ...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_191953" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Theatre © Iskanderov Damir/cc-by-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Ust-Kamenogorsk or Oskemen is the administrative center of East Kazakhstan Region with a population of 310,000. It is served by Ust-Kamenogorsk Airport. The city has two official names. In the Russian language, its name is Усть-Каменогорск; in the Kazakh language, its accepted name is Өскемен/Óskemen. Both names appear on the seal of the city. The city has three cinemas (although...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_154044" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Saint-Luce © Frameme[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of 1,128 km2 (436 sq mi). Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados. As with the other overseas departments, Martinique is one of the twenty-seven regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral pa...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_25716" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Order of Knights Templar in Europe around 1300 © Marco Zanoli/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple (French: Ordre du Temple or Templiers) or simply as Templars, were among the most wealthy and powerful of the Western Christian military orders and were among the most prominent ac...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_161052" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Battle of Waterloo- 18. June 1815 by Clément-Auguste Andrieux in 1852 © Musée national du Château de Versailles - Frank Schulenburg[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Waterloo is a Walloon municipality located in the province of Walloon Brabant. On 30 September 2011, Waterloo had a total population of 29,706. The total area is 21.03 km² which gives a population density of 1,413 inhabitants per km². Nearly one fifth of the current registered population (5,640 inhabitan...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_208140" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Café Museum © Fotostudio Schuster/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Viennese coffee house is a typical institution of Vienna that played an important part in shaping Viennese culture. Since October 2011 the "Viennese Coffee House Culture" is listed as "Intangible Cultural Heritage" in the Austrian inventory of the "National Agency for the Intangible Cultural Heritage", a part of UNESCO. The Viennese coffee house is described in this inventory as a place,...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_151747" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Bergen Panorama from Mount Fløyen © Espt123[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of 261,500. Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of 386,600. Bergen is located in the county of Hordaland on the south-western coast of Norway. It is an important cultural hub in its region, recognized as the unofficial ca...
[ read more ]
