Spyker Castle, Glowe, Germany

The Spyker (Spycker) Castle and estate is the oldest profane structure on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen. Spycker was first recorded in 1318. It belonged then to the Stralsund patrician family von Külpens. In 1344 a daughter from the House of von Külpen married the Jasmunds. As a result the Spyker branch of the von Jasmunds was founded which died without issue in 1648.

As a result of the Thirty Years' War, Pomerania, and hence Rügen, fell to Sweden under the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. As a reward for his wartime services, Queen Christine of Sweden gave the now empty seat of Spycker in 1649 to the Swedish field marshal and later governor-general of Swedish Pomerania, Carl Gustav Wrangel. The castle, originally furnished with a defensive moat, was remodelled after 1650 into its present appearance as a Renaissance schloss and painted in Swedish Falu red, which was atypical of Rügen. Fully sculptured stucco ceilings, unique in the Baltic region, date to around 1652.

After the death of Carl Gustav Wrangel in 1676, the property passed to his daughter Eleanora-Sophia, wife of the Lord of Putbus. Eleanora-Sophia died in 1687, and the property went to the Swedish family of Brahe, with whom her older sister was connected by marriage. After its occupation by the Napoleonic troops in 1806/07 Spycker temporarily became the seat of the French governor of Rügen. In 1815, Rügen, which had hitherto been Swedish, was handed over to Prussia. Magnus Fredrik Brahe sold Spycker in 1817 and it came into the possession of Prince Wilhelm Malte I of Putbus.

Until the land reform in the Soviet Occupation Zone in 1945, the estate remained in the possession of the von Putbus family. In subsequent years, the castle was left to decay. From the 1960s until 1989, the East German trade union federation, FDGB, used the castle as a holiday home. Since 1990, the castle has been used as a hotel and, in 1995, it was restored in line with its historical appearance. The hotel has 32 guest rooms.

In March 2006, the castle and its 67,000-square-foot estate was purchased at a forced sale by the present owner Dominik von Boettinger. Today Spyker Castle is a hotel and restaurant.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Andrei Chetroi (2 years ago)
Beautiful castle from the outside. Area nicely arranged. Nowadays used as a hotel, has a restaurants downstairs, in winter need to inform yourself on the opening season and hours.

Frank Kretschmer (3 years ago)
Schöney Schloßhotel

juan furgiuele goya (3 years ago)
The castle is beautiful, from the outside, five minutes. Inside it is completely neglected. It needs a reform twenty years ago. It is dirty and full of cobwebs. There is no elevator and no one will help you with your luggage, so if your room is not on the first floor, be prepared to climb the grueling stairs again and again. It is not adapted for the disabled. Dogs are allowed both in the hotel and in the restaurant, Quite weird and tasteless. Wi-Fi constantly fails. The service is unpleasant, rude and not qualified at all. The breakfast buffet is poor. It consists of cheap cold meats, little fruit, cut from the day before, lousy coffee, poorly cooked frozen bread and old yogurt that is refilled over and over again. Smell of cigarettes in the breakfast room, since the employees smoke in the kitchen The restaurant offers expensive food, to be all frozen. Bad service. When more than six customers gather, the kitchen collapses. I recommend going early, at a time when there is no one, so maybe you can eat moderately acceptable, since there is no other option for several kilometers. Better to look at any of the accommodation offers in the surrounding towns so as not to get an unpleasant surprise.

Christian Bruchmann (3 years ago)
Nice , small hotel In the middle of nothing just 20 min to coast and binz. Perfect for cycling Breakfast really good. Personal helpful. I will come back

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