En un regard
Le château en bref
Schloss Bensberg is a large Baroque palace in Bergisch Gladbach, overlooking the Bay of Cologne. The Elector Palatine and Duke of Jülich-Berg Johann Wilhelm II, known as Jan Wellem, had it built from 1703 by the Venetian architect Matteo Alberti, at first as a hunting lodge for his second wife, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici. After a visit to Versailles, he decided to turn it into a ceremonial palace modelled on Versailles and Winchester Castle. The couple did not live to see its completion; work continued until about 1710. The complex's central axis is aligned exactly with Cologne Cathedral. The palace later served as a field hospital and a cadet school. Bought in 1997 by an insurance company and restored, it opened in spring 2000 as a luxury hotel, the Althoff Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg.