Traar Manor

Entrance Gate

A portal designed in baroque forms from the second half of the 17th century leads into the inner courtyard. It consists of two brick, diagonally supported pilaster posts, each crowned by a lion as a shield-bearer with the coats of arms of the Teutonic Order on sandstone capitals. The pillars and walls are made of brick, the ornaments of sandstone. The heavily weathered sculptures were replaced by replicas in the late 1990s.

Manor House

The manor house is a two-story building constructed of plastered brick, with seven axes (length 19.80, width 10.60 meters), a gabled roof over a wooden cornice, and a central door. The new building from 1664 had lateral curved stepped gables, a central gable over the west facade, and a slender octagonal turret at the northwest corner. The year of construction is evidenced by the inscription "ANNO 1664" formed by iron anchors on the main facade. The current appearance dates back to a renovation around 1830 (changes to the door, roof, dormers, removal of the turret, new interior staircase). During these construction measures, the wooden front door with transom and a stone frame with a keystone bearing a coat of arms was also installed. In 1993, the manor house was renovated by the Weber family in accordance with monument preservation standards, preserving the historical building fabric and furnishings, and converted for contemporary use. In particular, the installation of a second staircase made it possible to divide the approximately 450 m² of usable space into individual units. During the renovation, the oak windows could no longer be used after 160 years of life and were replaced by profiled wooden windows of the same dimensions. Noteworthy are the preserved hand-hewn 17th-century oak roof truss, the up to 50 cm wide oak floorboards, the interior staircase, and the doors from the early 19th-century renovation.

Halfmannshaus

On the site of a thatched half-timbered building, a two-story brick residential house was erected in 1760 (anchor pins), with four by three axes and a half-hipped roof. It was renovated in 1860 (keystone above the entrance) and served as the administrator's house, also called Halfmann. The name Halfmann derives from the condition that in earlier times, half of the harvest had to be given to the lord as rent. In addition, manual labor and services with draft animals also had to be provided.

Farm Buildings

The farm buildings with stables, forge, and barn were built of brick in 1817 and later. After the cessation of agricultural use in 1991, the property, including the arable land, was sold to the city of Krefeld. An investor converted the farm buildings into condominiums supported by monument protection. Due to the necessary installation of many windows, the construction of an underground car park, and the conversion of the paved courtyard area into small-scale garden use, the agricultural character has been lost. The wooden barn with a formerly impressive roof truss was also bricked up, fitted with windows, and converted into a multi-family residential building. In the mid-1990s, the Elfrather Mühle golf course was built on the arable land belonging to the estate, and a hotel complex, now operated by the Novotel chain, was built on the former orchards. The hotel is the successor building to an equestrian facility that was built and operated by the then estate owner von Beckerath in the late 1970s. Another building was constructed in 1965 on the property in the western part, in place of the former greenhouses, as a detached single-family house in the style of the time.

Chapel

The chapel is a single-nave brick building from 1669 with a longitudinally rectangular hall measuring 6.40 x 4.75 meters and a polygonal, half-height, and subsequently added sacristy extension. The roof consists of a curved, slate-covered hip roof with a hexagonal roof turret topped by a curved spire. The interior has a flat ceiling. The long sides are pierced by two by two segmental arch windows with old glazing. A wide round arch opening in the west leads into the narrow vestibule, which extends across the entire width of the chapel. This was evidently installed later, as the floor tiles pass under the narrow inner wall, the inner beam is not freely suspended in the room, and the door opening is of an unusual shape. A wooden ceiling beam spanning the entire width of the building bears an inscription that has misled some historians:

ANNO 1256 HAT CONRAD ERTZBISCHOF ZU COLLEN CONFIRMIRT CUM OMNI IURE DEN TRANSPORT DER CAPPELLEN ZU ARE AN DEN RITTERLICHEN DEUTSCHEN ORDEN VON DEN ADELLICHEN BESITZEREN CASTRI IN ARE UND FAMILIEN DE ARE, WELCHE ANNO 1584 IST ABGEBRAND UND ANNO 1669 VON DEM RITTER HERREN UND COMMENTHEUREN FRANSZT GOTTFRIEDEN VON BUDLENBERCH GENANT SCHIRP ZU LUNTENBECK WIEDER AUF VORIGE PLATZ ERBAUET ZU GOTTES UND ALLER HEILIGEN EHREN.

At the time of the reconstruction in the 17th century, a document from 1256 was in possession, which certified the transfer of the patronage of the chapel in Are to the Teutonic Order. Believing it to be the Lower Rhenish Traar, this was mentioned in the inscription. However, the document referred to Burg Are near Altenahr, so the first part of the inscription is incorrect.

The stained-glass windows consist of painted panes or pane sequences set in lead, featuring coats of arms and sayings of the respective owners. One inscription reads, for example:

JOHANN CASPAR VON GOTTES GNADEN ADMINISTRATOR DES HOCHMEISTERTHUMBS IN PREUSSEN, MEISTER TEUTSCHEN ORDENS IN TEUTSCH UND WELSCHEN LANDEN, HERR ZUE FREUDENTHAL UND EULENBERG. ANNO 1670.

In the course of the new roof covering and the removal of ivy on the south facade, the historical windows were fully protected and stabilized with safety glass in the 1980s.

The altarpiece is an 18th-century painting on wood (height 2.25, width 1.90 meters) depicting a Madonna medallion carried by putti in front of a baldachin-like fabric drapery. The brass oil lamp (height 46 cm) is signed BAERLO 1716.

Moat, Garden and Park Area

After the Ice Age, the waters of the melting glaciers found their own way and flowed through the eroded valleys. Then the Rhine, oscillating during flood times, did its part and created new depressions typical of the Lower Rhine ("Kendel"). In the Traar area, these are the Niepkuhlen, the Traarer Kendel (formerly also called Traarbach), and the Löhken. Utilizing the course of the now dried-up Traarbach, protective moats with a drawbridge were built around the property. The map from 1760, a picture of the Henoumont family from about 1835, and the surveyor's plan from 1876 show the changes to the property in the 18th and 19th centuries. Around 1717, in addition to utility gardens, the first pleasure and ornamental gardens were laid out, commemorated by a preserved cast-iron rotunda already shown on the 1876 plan. In the 19th century, the complex was expanded into an elaborate landscape park, incorporating the moats surrounding the two areas of the property. This extended south and north of the buildings as a forest park, interspersed with ditches and clearings. With avenues and tree groups, the park included fruit and vegetable gardens as well as the surrounding agricultural landscape. Today, the lime avenue planted in 1834 and some individual trees are protected as registered natural monuments. Only two garden gate posts remain to commemorate the former flower garden. The moats are protected as an archaeological monument, but they have dried up in recent decades due to groundwater lowering.