Schloss Nordkirchen was largely built between 1703 and 1734 and is known as the 'Versailles of Westphalia' since it is the largest of the fully or partly moated Wasserschlösser in that region. It was originally one of the residences of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster.
In the 18th century, the structure visible today was raised in several building campaigns for Friedrich Christian von Plettenberg zu Lenhausen and his successor. In 1959, the schloss was purchased by the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen.
Parts of the interior of the palace are open to the public, as are the parterres and the surrounding park. Inside, an up-market restaurant offering Westphalian cuisine looks out into the large formal garden that faces the northern façade. The chapel may be rented for weddings.
The schloss stands on a rectangular island surrounded by a broad moat-like canal. The island’s four corners are accentuated by four small free-standing pavilions.
The garden front gives onto a landscaped park of some 170 hectares, reached through a formal parterre of scrolling broderie on axis, flanked by expanses of lawn. The gardens and the surrounded woods are peopled with a multitude of lifesize marble statues, of which the first deliveries were made in 1721 by the Munich sculptor Johann Wilhelm Gröninger. Other sculptures were delivered by Panhoff and Charles Manskirch. Further sculptures were added during the restoration in neo-Baroque style, undertaken in 1903-07.
References:Goryōkaku (五稜郭) (literally, 'five-point fort') is a star fort in the Japanese city of Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. The fortress was completed in 1866. It was the main fortress of the short-lived Republic of Ezo.
Goryōkaku was designed in 1855 by Takeda Ayasaburō and Jules Brunet. Their plans was based on the work of the French architect Vauban. The fortress was completed in 1866, two years before the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It is shaped like a five-pointed star. This allowed for greater numbers of gun emplacements on its walls than a traditional Japanese fortress, and reduced the number of blind spots where a cannon could not fire.
The fort was built by the Tokugawa shogunate to protect the Tsugaru Strait against a possible invasion by the Meiji government.
Goryōkaku is famous as the site of the last battle of the Boshin War.