Haus Havixbeck

Haus Havixbeck forms a three‑winged, U‑shaped complex that opens to the south toward the former outer bailey, set on an island surrounded by a wide moat fed by the Schlautbach, an original channel of the Münstersche Aa. The group lies within a large English‑style landscape park that preserves the regular arrangement of an earlier Baroque garden and includes a small chapel dating to the 17th century. The overall impression is of a manorial centre arranged around a court, with service ranges and defensive water features integrated into the plan.

The southern approach crosses a stone bridge and arrives at a gate flanked by Baroque pillars topped with putti, built around 1733. A longer avenue leads to the gate tower via a masonry bridge with three arches, the bridge and avenue forming the principal ceremonial axis. The gate itself retains a carved lion’s head used as a calling‑hole and bears the inscription WERDA.

Primary construction is local sandstone, with the upper floors of two late‑17th‑century ranges executed in timber framing. On the former outer‑bailey island two long, single‑storey service buildings with half‑hipped roofs occupy the east and west sides; these provided farm and economic functions in the 19th century. A late‑19th‑century chapel on the west side has been heavily altered and carries a small roof turret. Nearby stands a remise whose wall anchor records the date 1862.

At the north end of the island the rectangular manor house measures roughly forty‑eight by thirteen metres, rises three storeys and is covered by a high tiled gabled roof with dormer windows. The building’s core, including an octagonal stair tower on the north face with a slate helm, an infilled entrance and heraldic decoration, goes back to the 1562 phase. Iron anchors shaped as the numerals 1654 mark the later insertion of the western section, and a short eastern extension was added in 1711. The east gable carries an alliance coat‑of‑arms linking the von Twickel and von Droste‑Vischering families together with the date 1711.

The manor’s façades present stepped gables typical for the region, their steps finished by ball‑topped semicircular elements filled with shell relief. The courtyard‑side southern front features a central two‑storey portal projection in an early Flemish Baroque manner. The projection has five vertical bays, an entrance set slightly west of centre, half‑columns at the door, a round‑arched gable bearing a coat‑of‑arms, and pilasters that divide the two storeys, all finished by an ornate cornice; this projection was remodelled in the 20th century to its present form.

Inside, the west half contains a knight’s hall dated 1651 that spans the full width of the building. The hall preserves plank boarding and a simply ornamented wooden beam ceiling, a survival unusual for the period in the region where such ceilings were commonly covered with stucco. At the far end stands a large Dutch‑style fireplace with a frieze of coats of arms. The manor also houses two notable fireplaces dated 1562 and 1565 that originally came from Haus Lüttinghof and are distinguished for their art‑historical value. Facing the courtyard is a two‑storey Baroque house that completes the ensemble.