Gracht Castle

The origins of Gracht Castle date back to the 15th century, when it initially served as an ancillary court to Buschfeld House. In 1433, Otto von Buschfeld inherited the property. Around 1500, the current two-part castle complex developed. Through the marriage of Catharina von Buschfeld to Hieronymus Wolff gen. von Metternich in 1538, ownership passed to the Wolff-Metternich family, who used it as their ancestral seat for four centuries. Johann Adolf I. von Wolff-Metternich, who received the sub-lordship of Liblar in 1633, began expanding it into a castle in 1658. Franz Arnold von Wolff-Metternich zur Gracht in 1658, later Prince-Bishop of Paderborn and Münster, and Carl Schurz in 1829, a freedom fighter and later US Secretary of the Interior, were born here.