House Stapel

The flanking towers of the outer bailey and all other outbuildings apart from the gate tower were built in 1607-1608, the gate tower was possibly built in 1719 according to plans by Maximilian von Welsch. The classicist main building was designed by August Reinking. The castle buildings were completed in 1828. The castle estate "Haus Stapel" always belonged to landed gentry families. It was never sold in its entire history, but only passed to other families through the female line of succession.

At the end of the 18th century, the "von Kerckerinck zu Stapel" family died out in the male line. The heir's daughter Maria Theresia married Ernst Konstantin Freiherr von Droste zu Hülshoff, an uncle of the poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, in 1801 at the age of 15. This marriage produced 22 (!) children , but only about half of them reached adulthood and had no descendants. Today's castle was built for this large family. When the last of the children died in 1880, the estate was inherited by Klemens Freiherr Droste zu Hülshoff, nephew of Annette and great-grandfather of the current owner. He appointed his son Friedrich as heir, who did not marry and adopted his brother Clemens' eldest daughter, Ermengard. Since their marriage in 1956, the owner family has been called Raitz von Frentz. Annette von Droste Hülshoff regularly came to the Stapel house to teach her cousins.

Would you like to find out more about the history? Then take a look at the Haus Stapel website.