Castle Crottorf, Cultural heritage château in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Castle Crottorf is a two-part water castle in the Wisser valley, consisting of a high castle and a lower bailey to its southwest. The high castle is a two-winged building with three storeys and round corner towers with domed caps, surrounded by a defensive wall with a covered walkway and a round-arch frieze. A massive gate tower from 1684/85 stands at the entrance.
The castle began as a medieval stronghold and residence for regional nobles. Over the centuries it changed hands and was modified to meet the needs of those who governed it.
The name Crottorf is documented from 1261 with the knight Ludwig the Black von Crottorf, though a building of that name appears only in 1326. Since 1990 a sculpture by Alexander Liberman stands on a terrace lawn, a memorial to the participants of the 20 July 1944 plot against Adolf Hitler, funded by Marion Dönhoff, who lived at the castle and died there on 11 March 2002.
Only the outer courtyard and its buildings are open to visitors, from 1 April to 31 October on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between 11 am and 6 pm; the interior of the castle is not open. A 28-page guide can be bought at the entrance. The site lies 2 km west of Friesenhagen in the Wisser valley, and food and lodging are available in nearby Krottorf, Freudenberg and Friesenhagen.
A memorial sculpture by Alexander Liberman was placed on a terrace lawn in 1990, funded by Marion Dönhoff, who lived at the castle until her death there on 11 March 2002. It honours the participants of the 20 July 1944 plot against Adolf Hitler, among them Heinrich von Lehndorff, a relative of Dönhoff.
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