Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Noordrijn-Westfalen

Schloss Steinfurt or Schloss Burgsteinfurt (Steinfurt Castle) is located on an artificial island in the AA River. The castle is the oldest structure of its kind in Westphalia. It was first mentioned in documents in the year 1129, being a small square tower on a hill. A little later the original construction was added. During the centuries the castle was often rebuilt or extended. The Burgsteinfurt Castle complex consists of three elements. The upper castle is the oldest part, where the castle owners still live. The lower castle houses outbuildings, like barns, a coach house, a gate house and apartments for servants. The third part of the complex is a watermill. In 1421 the male line of the Steinfurt family was broken and Castle Steinfurt passed to the representative of the Bentheim family. He and his descendants called themselves Counts of Bentheim and Steinfurt. During the Thirty Years’ War the castle changed owners and was heavily damaged several times. It was finally restored betreen 1706 and 1715. Later several new baroque buildings were added. The castle - Burgsteinfurt’s most important building - is still inhabited by the noble Bentheim-Steinfurt family and is not open foir public.

Haus Welbergen (Welbergen Castle) is most probably one of the most beautiful hidden gems of Münsterland. Although the moated castle is not as well known as many other castles in Westphalia, it is in no way inferior to them in terms of beauty and charm. A Gräftenhof - a farmhouse surrounded by an articially moat - is already mentioned in 1282, on the spot where now Haus Welbergen stands. The "Herren von Welleberghe" lived on the estate from 1298 to 1330. In the middle of the 16th century it was converted into a moated castle; the moat is fed by the Gauxbach. In the eighteenth century the current size and style has been given shape. Haus Welbergen is built mainly of bricks and has sandstone window frames. After crossing a drawbridge one arrives on the forecourt, which is bordered by the gatehouse, farm buildings and stables on one side and by a wall with round corner turrets and a little chapel on the other side. In the middle of the inner courtyard of the castle is a small but very interesting garden. There have been several changes of ownership over the centuries until the more or less dilapidated castle was bought in 1929 by Dutch banker Jan Jordaan and his wife Bertha Jordaan - van Heek (daughter of well known Dutch textile entrepreneur Gerrit Jan van Heek). After the death of Bertha in 1960, the total possession of Haus Welbergen has been brought in a foundation: the Bertha Jordaan-van Heek stichting , with the purpose to maintain the entire property and the artistic exchange between Germany and the Netherlands. Nowadays Haus Welbergen is used for meetings and gatherings. The house and the art collection can be visited by groups and appointment. Public areas such as the forecourt, gardens and the park are open to the public.

The monumental rock formations of the Externsteine are considered being one of the most remarkable and impressive natural and cultural monuments in Germany, if not in Europe. The sandstone pillars are situated in the Lippe region and are part of the Teutoburgerwald, at the edge of the Wiembecke pond. Millions of years ago, these originally horizontal layers of rock were shifted into a vertical position and presumably owe their current form to the action of water over millions of years and the friction of ice during the Ice Age. The pillars rise up to a height of 38 metres. It has an observation platform with stairway dating back to the 19th century. The Externsteine - with a medieval sacral site in the midst of bizarre rock formations - have always fascinated people. The people who lived in this area in the Middle Ages appear to have established a place of Christian worship, with a grotto, a grave and a relief showing biblical scenes. It is no surprise that these rocks have inspired numerous folk legends. For instance it is thought that the site was possibly used for astronomical observation, worship and sacrifice. And that the site may have been connected, in some way, with the Irminsul aspect of Teutonic paganism. Legends or not, it did not stop the Nazi party in the 1930’s labeling the site as a sacred grove at which the ancestors could be honored. Heinrich Himmler presided over the foundation created to mythologize the site. Over the centuries the Externsteine underwent many alterations. It passed from the hands of the church in to those of the local nobility. Under their ownership it became a sometime fortress and prison. In the 16th century it was a hunting lodge. There was even one time in the 18th century when it became a pleasure palace. Yet it was restored as close to its medieval Christian incarnation as possible in the 1800’s.

Timber framed houses along the river Rur in Monschau. The city originated around 1195 and takes its name from the castle situated on a hill above the river Rur (PiP2). It is mentioned for the first time in 1198 as Mons Ioci and then in 1217 as Munioie and as Monjoje in 1226. Monjoye dominated the written form during the Late Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Times. Around 1800, the Montjoie form arose during the French rule in the Rhineland. By official decree, the name was ‘Germanized’ into Monschau in autumn of 1918 as the result of the lost First World War and the ensuing Francophobia.