Gützkow Castle

The estate had been owned by the von Maltzahn family since 1428. In 1579, it was pledged to the Duke of Mecklenburg. In 1617, the Preen family took over the estate as a pledge. In 1692, it was sold to Lorenz von Blücher. The manor house was built in the Baroque style by Adam von Blücher (1696–1781) until 1777.

Adam von Blücher had the manor house and the surrounding buildings constructed between 1770 and 1777, after he had been awarded the Gützkow estate following a 14-year legal dispute. It resembles Tützpatz Manor House, and probably had the same architect. Above the portal, the coat of arms of the von Blücher family can be seen.

In 1808, the estate was sold to Count Moltke auf Wolde, and in 1819 to Wilhelmine von Blücher. In 1862, the von Maltzahn family inherited Gützkow and sold the estate to the von Sydow family in 1937.

As part of the land reform in 1945, the last owner Siegfried von Sydow was dispossessed. Apartments were set up in the house. From 1985, the building stood empty and was threatened with decay. In 1998, Helmuth Freiherr von Maltzahn, who also rebuilt Ulrichshusen Castle, acquired the dilapidated complex and began reconstruction. Extensive renovation and expansion work was carried out from 1999 to 2010. Step by step, the castle, the two cavalier houses, the estate wall with the entrance portal, and the park were restored. Residential use is planned. The park was created in the first half of the 18th century, and only remnants of it remain.

Since 2001, Gützkow Castle has been a venue for open-air events of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. In 2006, a former cattle shed was opened as a concert hall with around one thousand seats.

Gützkow Castle is a single-story plastered building with a developed mansard roof of fifteen axes. In the middle of the courtyard and park sides are three-axis, two-story central risalits with high lunette gables, coat of arms cartouches, and ornamental vases on the apexes. In the gable on the courtyard side, the Blücher coat of arms and the date "Anno 1777" are affixed, while on the park side there is the monogram of the builder framed in rocaille. Quoined pilasters structure the facades.

Inside, the staircase with a two-flight staircase and an openwork railing has been preserved, as have parts of the Rococo stucco work, such as the double pilasters of the wall divisions.

On both sides of the manor house are two single-story brick buildings with mansard roofs, of which those closer to the castle are plastered. These cavalier houses date from the construction period of the manor house.