Meer Manor (Meerbusch)

The origins of the site date back to the 9th century, when a motte with wooden houses and palisades existed there in a loop of the Rhine. In 1166, two episcopal documents recorded the founding of a Premonstratensian convent by Countess Hildegundis von Ahr und Meer. She bequeathed her property to the Cologne church and entered the community with her daughter, whose spiritual leadership was taken over by Steinfeld Abbey. After Hildegundis' death in 1183, her daughter Hedwig continued to lead the convent. The convent suffered looting and destruction, including during the Truchsessian War (1583) and the Thirty Years' War (1642). Following secularization in 1802, the Krefeld silk manufacturers Friedrich Heinrich and Konrad von der Leyen acquired the property in 1804.