Caen Castle

The earliest mentions of Caen date back to 1310. In the 15th century, it was a fortified farmstead built on piles and later expanded into a small castle complex. After several changes of ownership, Baron Jacques Simon de Varo and his wife Anna Margaretha von Spicker acquired the fragmented estate by 1660. They extensively renovated and redesigned it by 1666/67 in the style of French pavilion castles, also establishing a castle chapel. In the 19th century, between 1830 and 1840, the surrounding park was transformed into an English landscape garden under the direction of Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe. After the male line of the Counts of Varo died out in 1876, the castle passed by inheritance to the Geyr von Schweppenburg family, who resided there until 2007 and remain the owners today. A fire in 1904 led to the renewal of the manor house's roof, and another fire in 1977 damaged the water mill, which was rebuilt by 1982.