Haus Bamenohl, Medieval stone castle in Finnentrop, Germany.
Haus Bamenohl is a castle in the village of Bamenohl, part of Finnentrop in the Olpe district. Its core is the former Niederbamenohl lower house, rebuilt in its present form between 1851 and 1853 by Carl Gisbert Wilhelm von Bodelschwingh-Plettenberg with the royal court architect Max Joseph Custodis. The 1647 east wing survives from the Thirty Years' War, and the tower portal still carries the coats of arms of the builder and his wife Eugenie von Quadt-Wyckrath-Hüchtenbrock.
Bawenole inferiore was first recorded on 5 March 1324, when Herbord Vogt von Heyen exchanged his bondsman Konrad for Gobelinus de Bawenole inferiore; the present building may not be the one named. Cellar vaults and walls up to two metres thick point to construction in the 14th or 15th century. In 1781 the last Vogt von Elspe bought the Oberhaus, uniting upper and lower Bamenohl; its buildings were demolished in 1784.
The chapel that once stood here, dedicated to Mary and John the Evangelist, was first recorded in 1362; its successor, the St. Albinus chapel built in 1647, was demolished in 1927 because it had become unsafe. The castle's name appears in 1324 as Bawenole inferiore, and the courtyard hosts open-air concerts on the third weekend of August.
Visits to the castle and gardens are possible by prior arrangement; the buildings are inhabited. Rooms on the ground floor can be rented for events, especially civil marriages. The courtyard hosts open-air concerts on the third weekend of August.
The 1647 east wing carries a stone plaque whose inscription, rendered as "IN GREAT WAR AND STRIFE AND REPULSIVENESS", dates the building to the Thirty Years' War. The family could build at all only because letters of protection shielded the estate from plunder. The tower portal still shows the coats of arms of Carl von Bodelschwingh-Plettenberg and his wife Eugenie von Quadt-Wyckrath-Hüchtenbrock.
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