After our previous trip to Burg Satzvey, we drove down to the Schloss Paffendorf as well. It is about 20 minutes from Burg Satzvey, and in a perfect world, I think it is worth the drive as well. Sadly for us on this day, it was not a perfect world, and the rain we had been dealing with since the morning, had only become stronger by the time we made it here. Not to be deterred, we got out of the Jeep to go explore the grounds.
The castle itself truly looks beautiful. It is another “Water Castle”, and it looks amazingly well preserved in that sense. It has a bridge that crosses the moat and leads through the gate, with a wide open courtyard on the other side. These days, a large portion of the courtyard is used for outdoor seating of the restaurant that has taken up partial residence of the castle. You can walk around though, and if you go looking, you can find some very cool views behind various corners that let you see the surrounding pond of the castle, and how it flows through the water tresses of the building.
The castle used to be mostly used as a summer home for nobles, but since the mid-1900s it was purchased by the RWE Power company. Since then, the power company has kept the castle in shape, while using it to host various events that are open to the public to attend with pre-purchased tickets. We didn’t take a chance to enjoy the restaurant, but from what we have heard, it is a bit pricey. If you ever make it there, we would love to hear about your experience!
After exploring the inner castle courtyard, we went out the backside gate and were welcomed to a large garden, approximately 8 hectares. The garden really did look great, and on a sunny day, we would have loved to spend time walking around it and just enjoying the scenery. Maybe another time. This is also maybe the best area to view the castle! From the backside you can really see the whole castle without any trees or parking lots in the way, and it gives the best view to see how the water under the castles flows around. It is gorgeous. The castle even had gothic or animal shaped water spouts hanging from the rooftops, that rainwater would shoot out of, into the moat/pond below. It was very unique.
That’s basically all there is to say about Schloss Paffendorf. For us it stinks that it was raining so much, but the fact that the castle still looked so amazing in the pouring rain, makes me think it must be a true site on a nice sunny day!