Türnich Castle

Schloss Türnich is a Baroque castle in the Türnich district of the city of Kerpen in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia and is owned by Godehard Graf von und zu Hoensbroech.

The history of the castle can be traced back to the year 898. The current form of the late Baroque manor house was built by Freiherr Carl Ludwig von Rolshausen in the mid-18th century. The design is presumably by the Cologne court architect Michael Leveilly.

The floor plan strongly resembles that of Falkenlust Hunting Lodge in Brühl, which François de Cuvilliés built for the Cologne Elector Clemens August I of Bavaria. There is also a comparability to Schloss Jägerhof in Düsseldorf Pempelfort.

Due to groundwater lowering caused by lignite mining by Rheinbraun AG, the castle has been in poor structural condition since 1974 and is in danger of falling apart. It is currently uninhabitable. The owner family aims for a complete restoration.

A single-nave chapel from 1895 with a round apse adjoins the northeast corner of the manor house to the east. The chapel was built by the architect Heinrich Krings and is dedicated to Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia. The interior is richly decorated in Neo-Romanesque style with marble cladding and wall paintings. The paintings were executed by the Nazarene Franz Guillery as well as Eduard Gebhardt and Ernst Deger. The sculptures were created by Wilhelm Albermann. The church windows were executed in 1902 by the renowned Cologne stained glass workshop Schneiders & Schmolz. After a fire in January 1991, the chapel and its furnishings could largely be restored. Some parts of the altarpiece and its golden border with its six crystal balls could not be restored and were not reconstructed. Permanent damage also occurred to the sacristy and the paintings in the chapel.

The small private Baroque garden is unparalleled in the Rhineland. The publicly accessible castle park contains a variety of different, partly exotic trees and shrubs. The showpiece is a magnificent lime avenue. In addition, the park is equipped with numerous stones by the artist Marko Pogačnik, which he created according to geomantic principles.

Godehard Graf von und zu Hoensbroech has created an organic orchard according to the rules of the Demeter association.

A castle café is located in the room of the former reference library in the outer bailey. This contained, among other things, various general and specialized encyclopedias, some complete editions of classical German literature, theological complete editions no longer available today, and extensive fiction. The collection dates back to 1590. For the operation of the courtyard café, the library was cleared out and redesigned as a guest room.