Ruhr Castle

Haus Ruhr is a listed building complex and a former moated castle in Schwerte-Wandhofen, North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). It is located on the Wannebach near its confluence with the Ruhr.

Haus Ruhr was built in 1455 by Jan von Boyle von Wetter, a hereditary castellan of Wetter, for his son-in-law from the von Neheim family. The many wars at the time made it necessary for the complex to be entirely designed for defense. The current buildings date from the 17th and 19th centuries.

In the mid-1970s, Haus Ruhr was used as a children's and youth home. Since its renovation in 1987, Haus Ruhr has housed the Ruhrakademie, a private educational institution.

In the castle courtyard stands one of the oldest horse chestnut trees in North Rhine-Westphalia, known as the Mother of Chestnuts. It is over 200 years old, has a diameter of 610 cm, a circumference of approx. 17 m, and a height of approx. 20 m. Its origin has many stories. According to the most interesting one, the Count of Nesselrode, an envoy of Frederick the Great, brought a handful of the strange spiky chestnut fruits from a mission in Persia. During a stop at Haus Ruhr, he is said to have lost one of these fruits from his saddlebags. This is said to have been the birth of the Chestnut Mother, the first chestnut on native soil.

The landscape garden was laid out in the English style in the 19th century.