Müggenburg, Neuss-Norf, Moated château in Norf, Neuss, Germany
Müggenburg is a château near Norf with a rectangular main building flanked by two square towers at its northern corners, which frame a small courtyard. The grounds are surrounded by a moat and accessed through a baroque gatehouse.
The site was first mentioned in the early 13th century, but the present manor house was built around 1750 for Carl Dominicus von Schwartz, a court councilor of the Electoral Palatinate. He had the old buildings demolished; the designs are attributed to Gabriel Grupello, though they were made about 20 years after his death. Schwartz and his wife Maria Agnes founded a secular convent for noblewomen and had a chapel built. The chapel has served as Norf's parish church since 1820.
The chapel was built by Carl Dominicus von Schwartz and his wife Maria Agnes von Hettermann for the free secular foundation "de la Congregation de Notre Dame", which housed noblewomen at Müggenburg until secularisation. The chapel no longer belongs to the estate; after several extensions it has served as Norf's parish church since 1820. The buildings themselves remain private and cannot be visited.
The manor house and outer bailey are private and cannot be visited; the von Waldthausen family still lives in the house. The former foundation chapel, now Norf's Roman Catholic parish church, stands on the estate but no longer belongs to the castle. The complex lies about 350 metres west of Norf's village centre, surrounded by a moat fed by the Norfbach.
The manor house stands on a high base rising straight from the pond, so the ground floor is reached only by a stone bridge and a two-flight staircase with wrought-iron Rococo ornament. The entrance below the triangular pediment is the only opening on the north side framed in light ashlar, set in a three-storey central projection with corner pilasters and an oculus in the gable.
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