To be privately owned
CastleLeutesdorf
Marienburg Castle
The Marienburg in Leutesdorf is a small Baroque castle located in the north of the village directly on the Rhine.
Its origin dates back to the Leutesdorf Castle, which was built by the bailiffs of Leutesdorf. These were appointed by the Counts of Virneburg. In 1300, the knight Werner Vogt von Leutesdorf is mentioned as a robber knight. Over the centuries, the bailiffs of Leutesdorf acquired shares in Bürresheim Castle through marriage with heiresses from Bürresheim and moved there. Over time, the castle became a wine estate. The individual lines of the bailiffs of Leutesdorf died out one after another. The last heiress Katharina Vogt von Leutesdorf married the knight Emmerich von Lahnstein in 1464. In 1661, after a lawsuit that lasted 89 years, the Breitbach-Bürresheim family became owners of Leutesdorf Castle. In 1680, the castle was sold again to Ferdinand Damian Freiherr von Breitbach, Lord of Bürresheim. He, in turn, sold the property in 1736 to the Electoral Trier Privy Councillor Ernst Anton Sohler, who was the director of the Leutesdorf Rhine customs.
Marienburg+
From 1750-1754, the Electoral Trier Privy Councillor Ernst Anton Sohler, who for a time also owned the Namedyer Werth, which was then named Sohler's Werth after him, had a four-story Baroque castle built on the foundations of Leutesdorf Castle. The main facade faces the Rhine, while the main entrance on the land side features a beautiful Rococo portal. The north wing, built at a right angle to the main building with a tower, and another separate building, together form the horseshoe-shaped inner courtyard. A beautiful landscape garden with a pergola and a small pavilion facing the Rhine adjoins the property. He himself lived in the house for only five years and died in 1759. The tenth child of his sister, Ernst Anton Josef Mees, inherited the castle as his uncle's heir, and it has been called Meesenburg ever since.
In 1855, the heirs sold the castle and the Namedyer Werth to Julius Johanny in Hückeswagen. He named the castle "Charlottenburg" after his wife. In October 1869, the castle was sold to Carl Emil Blank from Barmen, and since then it has been called "Marienburg". Blank was a brother-in-law of Friedrich Engels. After the Second World War, the Mennonites established a retirement home for displaced persons there. After the closure of the retirement home, the castle was renovated by two of Blank's great-grandchildren.
Today, the Marienburg houses private apartments, so visits are not possible. The "Kaffee-Galerie Marienburg" was formerly located in the north wing, where regular exhibitions by local artists and presentations of Leutesdorf wines took place.
Haunting in the Castle+
According to tradition, the castle was haunted in past times. It is said that one of the last owners was taken by the devil on a Good Friday around the year 1700 and dragged alive into hell. From then on, the castle was haunted. The ghost came with great noise from the village, ran through the inner courtyard into the north wing, from there into the kitchen of the main house, and disappeared into the pantry. At the same time, it is said that there was also unrest in the garden.
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Location: 50.4523, 7.3803