Nederland - Wijlre, Kasteel Wijlre

Kasteel Wijlre (Wijlre Castle) was first officially mentioned when Holy Roman Emperor Henry III donated it to his niece. After that the castle was mentioned in 1389 as a fortified house and seat of the imperial immediacy of the Holy Roman Empire and was part of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle.

The German eagle can be found in the coat of arms of Wijlre, which is the coat of arms of the “Van Wachtendonck” family, who resided in the castle in the 17th and 18th centuries as the lords of Wijlre until 1794. The present castle - an elongated rectangular building - was built by “Johan Arnold Van Wachtendonck” around 1652. The side facade of the main building has an eye-catching large sundial (PiP2).

The last aristocratic inhabitant of Wijlre Castle was the baroness and lady of Wijlre, “Christina de Bounam”. After her Kasteel Wijlre had several owners, until it was bought for habitation in 1981 by art collectors “Jo and Marlies van Eyck”. In the garden and in a pavilion (Hedge House) built in 2001, a large collection of modern art is exhibited. In 2014, the garden won the “European Garden Award”, making it one of the continent's most renowned nice outdoor spaces.