Tralau Manor, Manor house in Travenbrück, Germany.
Tralau Manor is a historicist manor house in Travenbrück, built in 1893 for the Jenisch family after a fire destroyed the previous house. It combines Gothic, Nordic Renaissance and Jugendstil forms, with two full storeys, a tall viewing tower and high decorative gables.
Tralau was first documented in 1197, when the name, of Wendish origin, marked a border area between Saxon and Wendish lands guarded by a hill fort. The Brockdorff family held the estate from 1444, followed in 1647 by a branch of the Rantzau family, who sold it in 1702. From 1754 to 1781 the Dukes of Plön owned it, and from 1824 to 1855 the Buchwaldt family; the Jenisch family, owners from 1890, built the present house after a fire destroyed its predecessor in 1893.
The name Tralau is of Slavic origin, and the estate lay in the medieval border zone between Saxon and Slavic territory, where a rampart served to guard the frontier. The Brockdorff family held the estate from 1444 for about two centuries, followed in 1647 by a branch of the Rantzau family. The landscape garden with its ponds and groups of trees was laid out in the English style to frame the house.
The manor is privately owned and occupied, and neither the house nor its English landscape garden is open to visitors; it cannot be toured. The grounds lie in the municipality of Travenbrück in southern Schleswig-Holstein, so the buildings are only seen from outside, from the surrounding area.
The manor's two towers were added in the early 20th century, when the building was extended by three window bays to the east; these additions were later removed, returning Tralau to its original form. The interior retains fixed panelling and ceiling paintings modelled on the Neo-Renaissance.
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