Dyck Castle

The park was designed from 1794 under Prince Joseph zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck (1773-1861) in the style of an English landscape garden (garden architects: primarily Thomas Blaikie, but also Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe and Peter Joseph Lenné); the 18th-century baroque garden was thus abandoned. The Prince himself was a private scholar and author of botanical works, especially the "Hortus Dyckensis", a documentation of all plants grown in the park and gardens of the complex. He also founded the Dyck Castle Library, which mainly contains botanical works. Since 1999, the castle has been managed by a foundation.

From 1995 to 2000, it served as the outdoor backdrop for the ARD soap "Verbotene Liebe", where it depicted Friedenau Castle, the ancestral seat of the von Anstetten family.

In 2002, Dyck Castle was the center of the decentralized State Garden Show of North Rhine-Westphalia, the show of the European Garden Region EUROGA 2002plus. The goal was to create an integrating park on the 24-hectare former agricultural land, which innovatively and respectfully dealt with the existing structures and explicitly referred to the former use. For the event, various theme gardens were created in both the historic park and the Dycker Feld as "New Gardens". Rectangular areas of reeds, Miscanthus, interspersed large lawns, and radial, anthracite-colored paths characterize the space and form central sightlines and connections. The reference point of the complex is a historic avenue of sweet chestnuts. In honor of Hanns Dieter Hüsch, a Lower Rhine landscape garden was created and named after him. In 2003, the Dycker Feld was awarded the German Landscape Architecture Prize.

At Dyck Castle, the plan was conceived to continue to consolidate and present the excellently restructured gardens of the EUROGA 2002plus State Garden Show. It was realized in 2004. Since then, Dyck Castle has been a founding member and the seat of the sponsoring association of the Road of Garden Art between the Rhine and Maas.

In the course of the Bamboo Year 2005, a modern bamboo garden was designed, among other things.

The Dyck Castle Foundation was founded in 1999. It later ran into financial difficulties. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the energy company RWE intend to make additional endowments of three million euros each in 2009.

Overall, the foundation is intended to become self-sustaining in the long term with the help of the financing provided.

Important steps on this path are/were:

• The development of new gardens since the State Garden Show 2002,
• 2003 the completion of the exhibition areas,
• 2005 the founding of an international institute for garden art and landscape culture
• 2006 the expansion of the European Garden Heritage Network

Since 2006, the "Classic Days" have been held at Dyck Castle in favor of the Dyck Castle Foundation. The event is a classic car and motor festival and is organized on a non-profit and completely voluntary basis by the Classic Days association. The "Classic" division of Mercedes Benz in combination with the museum from Stuttgart was one of the main content partners from the very beginning. The Classic Days are a unique event in Germany and consist of several individual events:

• International FIVA-A Concours d’Elegance in the castle park (Jewels in the Park),
• Motorsport in demonstration laps on a circuit at the castle (Racing Legends),
• Large vintage car meeting for visitors / meeting, picnic, jazz and relaxed garden party atmosphere

The great success of the event lies in a mixture of vintage car meetings, demonstration drives of exhibits and unique pieces from the factory museums of large automobile corporations and from private national and international collections, and flair. Famous racing drivers are guests and meet the public and participants up close. Visitors and participants are encouraged to appear in period clothing. In the fifth anniversary year 2010, 39,800 spectators visited the Classic Days.

On the occasion of the State Garden Show, the grounds were expanded and supplemented with modern components. Among other things, a sculpture by Ulrich Rückriem was erected on the expanded grounds. Since autumn 2003, the baroque moated castle Dyck has been the venue for an exhibition of contemporary art: Ten internationally renowned artists of different generations have developed spatial installations for the rooms in the main castle, for the staircase and the inner courtyard, which interpret the castle in its historical appearance and its location characterized by a landscape park in different ways.

At the same time, two stainless steel sculptures by the sculptor Beate Schroedl are on display in the historic park. They refer to the "Bamboo Year 2005" and to a special exhibition by this artist from Wuppertal.

Numerous events take place on and around Dyck Castle almost all year round.

An example is the annual Illumina, where the castle and park are staged with light shows and atmospheric music.