The site

Gantikow Manor is situated hundred kilometres north of Berlin. The manor is surrounded by a nice village with a medieval church and a lake. The building is a picturing example of a former baroque building which has been changed in the late 19th century in neo-baroque style.

Over centuries, the houses belonged to the Earls von Platen, which sold it in 1872 to a civil family which started soon, in 1877, with the modernisation of the house and kept it in their ownership till 1945. After World War II, the house was first used as a refugee shelter and after that the community used the house as a village centre, hosting the community office, the local store, the school, the kindergarten, the doctor's room, the kitchen of the agricultural cooperative and several apartments. Since around ten years it is used as a seminar house, mainly by non-profit organisations, youth initiatives and universities.

The house is surrounded by a beautiful garden with old trees which originally reached up to the lake.

The project

The manor has a comparable small annex which remains from the original Baroque building. Its current roof construction had been erected in the first half of the 20th century, but it was badly designed and got broken in the meantime.

Originally, it had been planned to replace only the broken parts of the construction, but when opening the ceiling it became obvious that the beams had been made from cottonwood which is not appropriate material for roof construction. Therefore a new roof construction has been erected which follows the shape of the original one. The works have been lead by a master of carpentry who has additional education as “Restorer in Handicraft”.

Within the framework of the educational part other historic roof constructions in the village and the region – in the manor house itself, the village church and in the town nearby – have been studied and discussed. 

The project has been organised by European Heritage Volunteers.