Schloss Borbeck

Description

Borbeck Palace in Essen-Borbeck stands within a sprawling landscape park and today serves as a centre for culture and education. The Baroque-influenced moated castle was for centuries the residence of the princess-abbesses of Essen and illustrates the development from a medieval complex to a stately castle ensemble.

The complex comprises a three-storey manor house, a long service building and a park of about 42 hectares in the English landscape style. The main building is laid out on a rectangular plan and is surrounded by a moat six to nine metres wide, which to the north empties into a castle pond. On the north side the façade is characterised by two square corner towers with curved cupolas and a curved gable; to the south the building was extended in the 18th century. A 19th-century stone bridge leads to the portal, above which the coat of arms of the princess-abbess is visible, its sword and bishop’s staff indicating secular and ecclesiastical rank. To the northwest stands a Neoclassical stuccoed building, erected on the site of the former outer bailey; integrated into one corner is a medieval rubble-stone tower from the 14th/15th century, once equipped with loopholes, a cellar prison and a guardroom.

The park was already reshaped from a beech forest in the 16th century and received its landscaped design in the 18th century with water features, aviaries and a small island; the spring of the Borbecke still feeds the moat and pond today. A wrought-iron gate from the late 17th century marks the entrance; in the eastern part of the park lies the former open-air arena, which is used for events. Since 2016 a management concept for the maintenance of the park as a historic garden monument has been implemented; planned residential developments on the southern edge were later abandoned. The Schlossparklauf has been held annually since 1954.

The history goes back to a Frankish Oberhof, first mentioned in 869. From the 14th century Borbeck served permanently as the residence of the princess-abbesses; damage from military destruction was repaired repeatedly. Significant alterations took place in the 17th and 18th centuries, largely shaped by the abbesses, who gave the estate its present external appearance. After secularisation the castle changed ownership and was architecturally extended in the 19th century. In the 20th century the city of Essen took over the complex, used it as an administrative building and, from the 1980s, made it available as a place for culture, continuing education and public encounter.

Since 2006 a permanent exhibition presents the near-thousand-year history of the Frauenstift Essen. Among the objects on display is a portrait of the last abbess from the 18th century, as well as furniture, tableware, Gobelins and a chess set from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Folkwang-Musikschule, parts of the adult education centre and a civil wedding room of the city are housed in the palace today.