At the foot of Tecklenburg, one of the most beautiful half-timbered towns in the Münsterland, lies the moated castle Haus Marck. Idyllically nestled in a valley meadow and surrounded by its moat, the manor house is considered an insider tip worth seeing by explorers of the Tecklenburg region.
The Knights of Horne acquired the property in 1368 to build a castle. As early as 1490, however, a new Haus Marck was built, which in the following centuries underwent a few changes of ownership and two major phases of reconstruction, one of them in 1562 in the Renaissance style. The house received its present appearance as a four-winged, single-storey complex in the Baroque style in 1754 after a collapse of the former complex. Since 1803, the estate has been owned by the von Diepenbroick-Grüter family, which has preserved the estate including the surrounding nature.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.