The Spyker Castle (german: Schloss Spy(c)ker) and estate lie on the territory of the municipality of

Glowe Glowe is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is a state-recognised resort. Geography Glowe lies about 18 kilometres north of Bergen auf Rügen and is located at the western end of the bound ...

in the district of

Vorpommern-Rügen Vorpommern-Rügen is a district in the north of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the Baltic Sea and the districts Vorpommern-Greifswald, Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Rostock. The district seat is ...

in the German state of

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

. Spycker Castle is the oldest profane structure on the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

island of

Rügen Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...

. Spycker was first recorded in 1318. It belonged at that time to the

Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin, Neub ...

patrician family, the 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 The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

, and hence Rügen, fell to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

under the

Treaty of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought peac ...

in 1648. As a reward for his wartime services, Queen

Christine of Sweden Christina ( sv, Kristina, 18 December (New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death ...

gave the now empty seat of Spycker in 1649 to the Swedish field marshal and later governor-general of

Swedish Pomerania Swedish Pomerania ( sv, Svenska Pommern; german: Schwedisch-Pommern) was a dominion under the Swedish Crown from 1630 to 1815 on what is now the Baltic coast of Germany and Poland. Following the Polish War and the Thirty Years' War, Sweden held ...

Carl Gustav Wrangel ''Fältmarskalk'' Carl Gustaf Wrangel (also Carl Gustav von Wrangel; 23 December 1613 – 5 July 1676) was a Swedish Statesman and Military Commander who commanded the Swedish forces in the Thirty Years', Torstenson, Bremen, Second Northe ...

. The castle, originally furnished with a defensive moat, was remodelled after 1650 into its present appearance as a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cognate ...

'' and painted in Swedish

Falu red Falu red or falun red ( ; sv, falu rödfärg, ) is a permeable red paint commonly used on wooden cottages and barns in Sweden, Finland, and Norway. History Following hundreds of years of mining in Falun, large piles of residual product wer ...

, 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 Putbus () is a town on the southeastern coast of the island of Rügen, in the county of Vorpommern-Rügen in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, close to the Baltic Sea. The town has 4,741 inhabitants and is a significant tourist destinat ...

. 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 Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

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 Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

Magnus Fredrik Brahe Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wid ...

sold Spycker in 1817 and it came into the possession of Prince

Wilhelm Malte I Wilhelm Malte I, Fürst und Herr zu Putbus (1783 – 1854) was a German prince (''Fürst'') from the old Slavic-Rügen noble family of the lords of Putbus. He acted as a Swedish governor in Swedish Pomerania and later, under Prussian rule, as t ...

of Putbus. Until the land reform in the

Soviet Occupation Zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...

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 The Free German Trade Union Federation (german: Freier Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund or ''FDGB'') was the sole national trade union centre of the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) which existed from 1946 and 1990. As a mass organisat ...

, 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. The buyer was the architect, Dominik von Boettinger, who, in addition to the hotel and restaurant operation of the castle, also wants to use it as a cultural centre with exhibitions, concerts, readings, and a sculpture park.

External links

Spycker Castle in the mid-19th century (Duncker Collection)

Map of Swedish estates with the site of Spycker Castle in September 1694
{{Coord, 54, 33, 25, N, 13, 30, 49, E, type:landmark_region:DE-MV, display=title Houses completed in the 17th century

Spycker Spycker (; nl, Spijker, ; vls, Spyker) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. History Spycker was liberated by soldiers of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada in September 1944.O'Keefe, David R. "With Blinders ...

Buildings and structures in Vorpommern-Rügen Rügen