Ortenburg

No. 23

The round-arched door in the crenellated courtyard wall connecting the lord’s manor with the farm buildings of Ortenburg shows a date of 1636. The parlor with its bay window and a beamed ceiling with joists are certainly older.

Ortenburg and its immediate neighbor to the south, Strehlburg Manor, form one of the most beautiful architectural ensembles of the Unterland region.

Remarkable are the old crenelated walls in the inner courtyard with their wooden anchor plates.

Oral history: “Our great-uncle Oskar lived in this house before us. He told us that a lady with long, flowing blond hair in a white dress sometimes visited him in his dreams, usually in the night of a full or new moon.

He also told us that a passageway connected Strehlburg and Ortenburg; you can still see the walled up round arch in the inner courtyard of Ortenburg.

In any case, this lady, as my great-uncle always claimed, was held prisoner within the walls of this tunnel. She was apparently walled in there when it was closed up. Until now, the tunnel has never been opened…”

The most important changes in ownership: probably originally property of the Truefer family, from 1572 or 1566 am Orth, from 1667 Pach, from 1780 Putzer, from 1793 Tschandrin, from 1794 Gruber.