Moyland Castle
The name was probably coined by Dutch workers, whom the then-leaseholder Jacob van den Eger of the Lower Rhine brought to the property in 1307 to drain the surrounding wetlands.
The building is now primarily a museum devoted to exhibiting the world's largest collection of work by artist Joseph Beuys.
During World War II, he attended Moyland Castle in the wake of observing Operation Plunder - the Rhine crossing of the British Army.
Today, the park features sculptures by contemporary artists from around the world, including James Lee Byars, U We Claus, Hans Karl Burgeff, Eduardo Chillida, Huub Kortekaas, Kubach-Wilmsen, Josef Jaekel, Heinz Mack, Gerhard Marcks, Holger Runge and Antoni Tàpies.
In that year the priest and later Archdeacon of Liège, Jacob van den Eger accepted the investment of Count Otto von Kleve in annual lease.
[8] Until the second half of the 17th Century there followed frequent changes of ownership inheritance, which ended in 1662, when the Brandenburg Field Marshal Alexander von Spaen purchased the fief.
His descendant Wilhelm von Spaen sold the now rebuilt castle in 1695 to the then Brandenburg electors, and later Prussian King Friedrich I.
[11] The former fortified farm was in 1345 to 1355 redesigned by Roland von Hagedorn into a classical gothic castle with a square floor plan.
In the 15th century in the courtyard of the main castle building new wings were built and a decorated chapel was added in the east tower.
Alexander Baron von Spaen had the medieval fortifications expanded and rebuilt in 1662 as a baroque castle styled like the buildings from the capital city of Kleve by Pieter Post.
The Baroque interior was maintained largely untouched during the work under the Cologne Cathedral architect Ernst Friedrich Zwirner.
The castle walls were covered with red brick and the three corner towers were fitted with battlements and pointed windows.
The castle's owner Gustav Adolf Steengracht von Moyland was Ribbentrop's state secretary and was tried for war crimes by the Americans, but in January 1950 he was given an amnesty and freed.
Several previously unpublished drawings in the exhibition "Energy Plan" are presented, from 5 September 2010 to 20 March 2011 in the rooms of the castle.
[15][16] The castle re-opened in September 2011 with a new thematic concept and complete interior redesign by architects Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht.
