Gut Renkhausen, Manor house in Gehlenbeck district, Lübbecke, Germany.
Gut Renkhausen is a manor house in the Gehlenbeck district of Lübbecke, featuring neo-Renaissance architectural elements and built on the foundations of a former water castle. The property sits in the landscape between the Wiehengebirge mountains and the Mittelland Canal and serves today as an agricultural operation with event spaces.
The estate was first documented in 1278 and passed through five noble families between 1543 and 1817 before the Stille family owned it until 1960. Its transformation from a medieval water castle to the present villa form took place in 1896.
The estate is not open to the public, so its culture is seen from outside: the name recalls the Klenke von Renckhausen family, whose Sophia Charlotte married Benjamin von Mentzingen (1648–1723), a Stuttgart court official, bringing the property briefly to the Baden family von Mentzingen. Until 2020 civil weddings were held in its rooms, and the "Café im kleinen Stall" served cyclists heading for the Großes Torfmoor or the Mittelland Canal before it closed.
The estate is not open to the public, so the house and grounds can only be viewed from outside. The former "Café im kleinen Stall", once a starting point for bike rides to the Großes Torfmoor or along the Mittelland Canal, is closed. Several mills of the Westfälische Mühlenstraße stand in the immediate vicinity and can be combined with a ride past the estate.
In 2004, the estate hosted the German national championships in performance plowing, a farming competition that rarely draws public attention. This unusual use reveals the versatile role of the property in local agriculture and rural life.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,036 contributors worldwide.