Schloss Miel, Swisttal

Miel Castle is located in the district of Miel in the North Rhine-Westphalian municipality of Swisttal in the Voreifel.

On the southeastern edge of the Ville, at a distance of about 16 km from Bonn and with direct connection to the A 61 in the Swistniederung, lie the village and castle of Miel.in the series of castles and palaces located in the periphery of the former royal seat of the Electorate of Cologne. Miel is special in that the two-century-old manor house located here does not have the name "castle", which was inherited from its predecessor and is still used today.

On the site of an older moated castle of the Spies von Büllesheim, Caspar Anton von Belderbusch, the Elector of Cologne's minister of state and true regent of Electorate Cologne under Elector Max Friedrich, built a Baroque castle from 1767-1772. Elevated to the rank of Imperial Count von Belderbusch in 1782, he lived at Miel Castle, his personal retreat, until his death in 1784. The building is modeled on a French hunting lodge in the style of Louis XIV. Because of an amorous liaison of the minister of state with the abbess of the Vilich convent, Caroline von Satzenhofen, there was a room for her in the castle building.

The castle was built with - according to the intended use - slight modifications in the form of a Maison de Plaisance, as it was obligatory for the more ambitious country castle buildings of the IX century and is preserved in the Rhineland in several examples.

Since the exhibition Riss im Himmel in 2000, it has been possible to visit the interior of the then extensively renovated pleasure palace. Particularly significant is the Garden Hall with the wall paintings of the Bonn court painter François Rousseau.

Today the castle with outbuildings is used by a golf club and a restaurant.