Residents and owners The first time that a fortified farm called Moyland is documented with ditches and ramparts is 1307. In that year the priest and later Archdeacon of Liège, Jacob van den Eger accepted the investment of Count Otto von Kleve in annual lease. The teacher then later called the children of the count "of Moyland". Fifteen years later the estate was purchased from Roland von Hagedorn by Dietrich VIII von Kleve who also renewed the
fief in 1339. The relevant instrument is the first time that Castle Moyland is documented. Until the second half of the 17th Century there followed frequent changes of ownership inheritance, which ended in 1662, when the Brandenburg Field Marshal
Alexander von Spaen purchased the
fief. His descendant Wilhelm von Spaen sold the now rebuilt castle in 1695 to the then Brandenburg electors, and later Prussian King Friedrich I. He used Moyland primarily as a hunting lodge, and also as a love nest. His affair with the 17-year-old Emmericher citizen's daughter Katharina Rycker was made mention of at the
Prussian court. In 1740 during one of his many stays in the castle the Prussian King Frederick II met with the philosopher Voltaire. Together they developed the idea of "Truth Factory", a philosopher Academy, which should be set up at the Castle Moyland. In 1766 the estate came into the possession of the Dutch family Steengracht when Adriaan Steengracht received the castle as compensation for loans made to the Prussian royal family in the Seven Years' War. Moyland remained in a possession within the Steengracht family until 11 July 1990 when the Castle Moyland Museum Foundation was formed with the objective of rebuilding the facility for use as a museum. The owners had long been seeking suitable funding for a rebuild. The decisive impetus for the creation of the Foundation in 1987 was provided by the brothers Franz Joseph van der Grinten and Hans van der Grinten who were looking for a site for their private collection of modern art. On 24 May 1997 the completely renovated buildings and the gardens were reopened.
Building history The former fortified farm was redesigned in 1345 to 1355 by Roland von Hagedorn into a classical Gothic castle with a square floor plan. In addition to three round towers it had on the north corner of a more powerful, fourth round tower, which served as a dungeon. From the interior courtyard the third tower was accessible and provided all sorts of comforts, such as a well, toilet, light niches and a fireplace. The western side of the castle was at that time, a great hall, the other sides consisted of walls with battlements. South of the main castle was a bailey, the castle gate through which the main castle was reached. In the 15th century in the courtyard of the main castle building new wings were built and a decorated chapel was added in the east tower. Alexander Baron von Spaen had the medieval fortifications expanded and rebuilt in 1662 as a baroque castle styled like the buildings from the capital city of Kleve by Pieter Post. Since only a year before the renovation work at Castle Ringberg was completed, you can still today see architectural parallels between the two castles. The basement rooms received new, concave sides and the floor heights were changed. Also, the main castle windows were arranged symmetrically and the approaching roads were moved so that they led axially towards the main house. Under Johann Nikolaus von Steengracht from 1854 to 1862 a remodeling of the exterior was done in the Gothic Revival style. The Baroque interior was maintained largely untouched during the work under the Cologne Cathedral architect Ernst Friedrich Zwirner. The castle walls were covered with red brick and the three corner towers were fitted with battlements and pointed windows. The keep was set up with a
historicist pointed roof. The gateway also experienced a reorganization and was made accessible via a newly-built stone bridge. In the course of this work, the fore-castle was rebuilt on the foundation of its predecessor. In addition, the builder replanted the parks in the "mixed style" of that time. In this can be found in the style of an English landscape garden and baroque structures typical of the so-called "architectural garden". Because of their importance, the park was in 2004 added to the tourist route
Strasse der Gartenkunst (Road of Garden Art). The castle survived the last battles of the Second World War relatively unscathed, until the arrival of the Allies on February 25, 1945. Field Marshal
Bernard Montgomery took the castle as his headquarters. In this period
Winston Churchill also came to Moyland. After they left, almost all of the sumptuous interior underwent theft and vandalism by Canadian soldiers, and the castle was devastated. The castle's owner,
Gustav Adolf Steengracht von Moyland, was
Joachim von Ribbentrop's state secretary and was tried for war crimes by the Americans, but in January 1950 he was granted amnesty and freed. A temporary repair was done in 1954, but a fire in the western roof truss in 1956 caused damage; despite a temporary roof, the buildings gradually fell into disrepair. 1987 began with repairs to restore the buildings. From 1990 to 1997 the newly-formed Foundation Museum Schloss Moyland had responsibility for the restoration and extension of the historic buildings and a modern redesign of the rooms of the interior for use as a museum. == Museum ==