Syke Manor

The two-story plastered half-timbered house with a half-hipped roof was built in 1729 during the Baroque era as the residence (also called official's residence) of the bailiffs of the Hanoverian office of Syke in Vorwerk Syke. Further buildings were added (see Vorwerk). The last bailiff to live here was Hans-Michael Heise. The bailiff's office was bought by the district and occupied from 1932 to 2002 by the district administrator and from 1946 by the chief district director of the district of Grafschaft Hoya and later the district of Diepholz. In 2002, the Gemeinnützige Stiftung Kreissparkasse Syke took over the bailiff's office and the coachman's house from 1783. According to plans by architect Hans-Jürgen Krohne, the buildings were renovated and converted for the Syker Vorwerk – Center for Contemporary Art, which opened in 2007 with an exhibition area of 600 m². Thematic group and solo exhibitions take place alternately. The collection includes works by the sculptor Louis Niebuhr and his wife Beate Zitzlaff (Syke) as well as 60 paintings by the artist Hans-Albert Walter (Diepholzer, Düsseldorf). Since 2005, the farmhouse archive of the counties of Hoya and Syke has been located in the coachman's house, and since 2010, the art collection's magazine has been in the horse stables. The art center regularly publishes publications on its exhibitions (see website).