Schlenderhan Castle (Ichendorf)

The first documented mention of Schlenderhan, then referred to as “Slenderhagen,” occurred in 1028 through a donation by Count Palatine Erenfried to Brauweiler Abbey, confirmed by Archbishop Pilgrim in 1051. During the division of the Villewald in 1258, the estate passed to Kornelimünster Abbey, which granted it as a fief. From 1271, a noble family was named after the estate. Through the marriage of the heiress Maria to Winand in 1527, the property came into the possession of the Raitz von Frentz family. In the 17th century, the cavalry general Jan von Werth served at the court; his daughter later married the estate owner, which led to their elevation to Imperial Barons in 1650. After the death of the last descendant, Adolf Carl Hubert Freiherr Raitz von Frentz, in 1867 without heirs, the Cologne banker Simon von Oppenheim acquired the estate, partly due to the local lignite deposits. He was ennobled in the same year, and his son Eduard founded the Schlenderhan stud farm. The original, water-surrounded castle complex was abandoned in 1780 and largely demolished; the last tower collapsed into a lignite mine in the 1940s. The current late Baroque castle was built as one of the last Rhenish noble residences before the French period.