Anyone heading for the small car park at Haus Rüschhaus will have no idea what a gem of late Baroque architecture lies behind the small wood. Only a few kilometres from Münster's city centre , Haus Rüschhaus is a popular destination for cyclists and hikers.
The Westphalian Baroque master builder Johann Conrad Schlaun (1695 - 1773) built Haus Rüschhaus as his own country residence from 1745 to 1749 on an old farmstead. For the design of the house, he combined features of rural and representative, stately architecture both inside and out. He gave the island of the moats a clearly defined form and laid out a symmetrically structured kitchen garden and ornamental garden in keeping with the style of the time.
After the death of her father, the author Annette von Droste-Hülshoff moved with her mother and her sister Jenny to Rüschhaus, only around five kilometres away from her birthplace Hülshoff, where she lived from 1826 to 1846 and wrote "The Jew's Beech", among other works. Droste lived in three small rooms on the mezzanine floor of the Rüschhaus, which she shared with her former nurse. She called her living room, where she retreated to write, her snail shell.
The kitchen garden, which was overgrown in her time, was later restored as a baroque garden according to Schlaun's original plans. This beautiful "secret" nestles at the back of the house and offers ever-changing views from spring to autumn. A wonderful place for a stroll in a historic setting.
Here, where Droste wrote much of her poetry and prose, Sonja Lesniak, project manager of "Droste Digital", takes you on a private tour of the Biedermeier rooms of the not always open Rüschhaus.
Rundgänge durch das Droste-Museum:
Mittwoch bis Freitag: 14, 15:30, 17 Uhr (persönlich begleitete Rundgänge)
Samstag und Sonntag: 11 und 17 Uhr (inkl. Audioguide), 12:30, 14, 15:30 Uhr (persönlich begleitete Rundgänge)
Groups can also book guided tours outside regular opening hours, more information here: https://www.burg-huelshoff.de/orte/haus-rueschhaus
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