Haus Broich, Baroque moated manor house in Broich, Jülich, Germany

Haus Broich is a two-part complex: a baroque brick manor house on a rectangular island surrounded by a 9–12.5-metre moat, and a ruined 18th-century outer bailey to its south. The two-storey house, about 15.5 × 13.5 metres, has pink-tinted plastered walls, a pan-tiled hipped roof and a three-storey tower with a slate-covered curved cap on its south-west side. A two-arched bridge and curved stone steps lead to an entrance set off-centre to the west.

The estate grew from a medieval fortified hill structure first recorded in the 14th century and owned by several noble families. The present baroque form developed later as the original defensive construction was transformed.

The name Broich comes from a Rhenish dialect word for wet meadow or marshland, recalling the swampy ground of the original motte. The estate is also known as Schloss Hallberg after the family that bought it in 1738 or 1742 and whose descendants still lived there; the writer Karl Theodor von Hallberg-Broich was born here in 1768.

The building is privately owned and not open to visitors, but it can be viewed from outside along the road. The surroundings allow visitors to see the outer architecture and water features that define the property.

The entrance of the baroque mansion is not in the central axis but offset to the west, contrary to baroque design principles. A two-arched bridge leads over the moat to a small terrace, from which a curved open staircase rises to the door. The bridge and stair are flanked by blue-stone pillars topped with pine cones.