Schloss Dyck Foundation

Schloss Dyck mit Wasserspiegelung

As a Centre for Garden Design and Landscape Culture, the Schloss Dyck Foundation is a unique institution in North Rhine-Westphalia which links the historical gardens and cultivated landscapes to current topics of landscape design and urban development in a direct and accessible manner. Looking back on approximately 1000 years of history of the lords of the Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck family, the heiress, Gräfin Marie Christine Wolff Metternich, was looking for a usage which ensured the continuity of the important property for the Rhineland. The Schloss Dyck Foundation was founded in 1999 as a Centre for Garden Design and Landscape Culture in accordance with a concept drawn up by the Landschaftsverband Rheinland (Rhineland Regional Council).

The required foundation capital was provided by the Landschaftsverband Rheinland, Rhein-Kreis Neuss district, the municipality of Jüchen and the Sparkasse Neuss savings bank. The Federal State of NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) supported the establishment of the foundation through a grant to the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. Gräfin Metternich contributed the castle complex and the English Landscape Garden to the foundation. The costs of the extensive renovation of the large moated castle complex and the extension of the important park area by new gardens were first and foremost borne by the Federal State of NRW and Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. In addition, financial support for exhibitions, individual renovation measures and projects such as the European Garden Heritage Network (EGHN) managed by Schloss Dyck, is provided by the European Union, the federal government, the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz (a German foundation for monument protection), the Kunststiftung NRW (a foundation supporting art in North Rhine-Westphalia), the Stiftung Kulturpflege und Kulturförderung der Sparkasse Neuss (a foundation of Sparkasse Neuss for cultural care and support) and by the Landschaftsverband Rheinland and Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe. Furthermore there is a commitment from the business community to the design and care of individual gardens, the financing of the cultural programmes and the development of a scientific institute.

The overall objective of the financial support given is to establish a foundation that is self-supporting in the long term. Important steps on this journey have been the development of new gardens since the Regional Garden Show in 2002, the completion of the exhibition areas in 2003, the foundation of an international institute for garden design and landscape culture in 2005 and, last but not least, the establishment in 2006 of the European Garden Heritage Network managed by Schloss Dyck.