Hohenover Castle

Of the once much larger estate, only the manor house remains today. It is a two-story brick building with corner pilasters of the same material and a pan-tiled hip roof over a wooden cornice in a simple architectural design. The sliding windows with leaded panes have not only a segmental arch finish but also wooden block frames and are fitted with shutters. Some have been altered or bricked up. On the stair landing in front of the courtyard facade, there is a wrought-iron grille on which the letters Z H B can be seen, above it a crown and the now quite damaged year 1783. Above the front door, one finds the coat of arms of the zur Heiden family, which shows three heather flowers and the inscription Quieti dedicatum MDCCLXXXI.

There are some indications that Hohenover was already granted as a fief to a deserving Saxon or Frank from confiscated royal land during the Carolingian era. The first owner known by name in the 14th century came from the noble family of von Galen. This was Henrich von Galen (born around 1370). The estate remained in the hands of this family for a long time. Tonies von Galen, who died in 1487, was also the owner of the manor house. His descendants can be traced at Hohenover for five generations. Finally, at the end of the 16th century, Balthasar von Galen took over the estate. By then it was already heavily indebted, so that after Balthasar's death in 1634, it was seized by creditors. Balthasar's son Johann Dietrich von Galen sold his inheritance in 1667 to Franz von Bodelschwingh, colonel and commander in Hamm.

His widow and daughter sold Hohenover in 1690 for 9,066 Thalers to Friedrich Heinrich von Waldheim gen. Potgießer zu Heidhof und Braam and his wife Anna Christine von Neheim. Both had a daughter, Clara Sibilla, who was married to Johann Wilhelm von Ossenbruch zur Wische. She sold the estate in 1701 for 12,000 Thalers to her uncle Johann Caspar von Neheim. His son Johann Adolf had to sell it again in 1745, along with the free estate Vogelhaus, to avert bankruptcy. The buyer this time was the Justice Councillor Christian Albert zur Heiden, mayor of Hamm, who died in 1774 as lord of Hohenover.

The zur Heiden family built a new manor house at Hohenover and adorned it above the front door with their family coat of arms bearing the inscription Quieti dedicatum MDCCLXXXI. They also had the wrought-iron grille of the stair landing in front of the courtyard facade fitted with the letters Z H B and the year 1783, which testifies to the completion of the building in that year. In 1804, the estate was still in the hands of the zur Heiden family.

Two decades later, Friedrich Leopold Freiherr von Fürstenberg-Hedringen is documented as the owner. He bought the estate in 1823 from the creditors of the last owner von Devivere and bequeathed it to his son Friedrich Freiherr von Fürstenberg zu Körtlinghausen. His descendant Egon Freiherr von Fürstenberg zu Körtlinghausen sold it on November 28, 1872, to the Blanke/Böning family in Norddinker, in whose ownership it still remains today.