The Grupello-Haus (Grupello house) is a three-storey building located at 4 Marktplatz,

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The original size of the building was likely half of its current size.

History

It is believed to have been designed by the Italian architect in 1706 for Duke Johann Wilhelm. The Duke gave the house to his

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

court sculptor

Gabriël Grupello Gabriël Grupello (also Gabriël de Grupello or Gabriël Reppeli; 22 May 1644 – 20 June 1730) was a Flemish Baroque sculptor who produced religious and mythological sculptures, portraits and public sculptures. He worked in Flanders, France and ...

in 1708 and the name of the house is derived from this.Grupellohaus
Grupello carried out an important reconstruction of the building. He used the house as the living quarters of his family and partially as a studio. Originally, two female busts representing the Greek goddesses

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...

and

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols inclu ...

presumed to be by Grupello were placed above the portal. The original bronze statues are now in the local Stadtmuseum Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf and have been replaced by two concrete cast replicas. In the year 1748 Elector Karl Theodor acquired the house and leased it to the painter and later Academy Director

Lambert Krahe Wilhelm Lambert Krahe (15 March 1712, Düsseldorf – 2 November 1790, Düsseldorf) was a German history painter and art collector. Life He was the son of a government clerk. Nothing is known of his early education. He found a patron in Ferdi ...

. From 1769 Governor Duke von Efferen lived in the house, which is why it is also called ''Gouvernementshaus'' (Government House). Later, the police department was housed in the building for some time. In 1818 it became property of Düsseldorf city through a donation by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

.Digitalisierte Ausgabe der ULB Düsseldorf Ernst von Schaumburg, in: ''Historische Wanderung durch Düsseldorf''
Vortrag vom 5. April 1866, p. 71 Heavily damaged in the war, the house was rebuilt in a simplified form. Nothing is left from the original interior. In 1969, a new meeting room of the town hall was opened in the house and it is now used as the meeting venue for the city council.

References

{{commons category, Grupello-Haus Buildings and structures in Düsseldorf