Heeswijk Castle

Heeswijk Castle (Dutch: Kasteel Heeswijk) is a moated castle near Heeswijk in the Dutch province of North Brabant.

Heeswijk Castle was built on a meander of the small River Aa. The 20th century canalized Aa now flows at some distance of the Castle. However, in the early decades of the 21st century the original bed of the Aa closer to the castle, was restored and now gets enough water. The Aa was crucial for transporting heavy goods between 's-Hertogenbosch and Helmond, and perhaps even somewhat higher upstream. This gave an economic reason to build the castle on the river. On the other hand, the Aa was a barrier for east–west movement, especially by armies. This also gave the castle a strategic position, which it would keep for centuries.

The main castle has been built on top of an old motte. In the cellar there is a loam layer containing fragments of bog iron and tuff, remnants of the first castle. There are also 14th century wall fragments visible in the cellars. Here the outer walls reach a thickness of three meters. Aboveground most of the main castle is 15th and 16th century, but the semi-circular form of the older parts still betrays its motte origin. The old part has two round towers on the corners, and one old overhanging tower. The bridge leading to the inner courtyard ends on the base of a disappeared square gate tower.

The big round tower, the gallery connected to it, and the armory to which the gallery connects are all nineteenth century additions. This is also the case for the round tower pasted to the eastern façade. Nevertheless, the big tower was built on top of older foundation. Therefore, these additions probably did not enlarge the ground plan of the castle that much, even though they may have made it more square.

The outer bailey is a fine example of sixteenth century construction. It was built of alternating rows of brick and stone, creating a striped façade. It also has nice features like stepped gables and cross-windows. The bailey is surrounded a wall in the same striped façade style.

The original motte-and-bailey castle was erected in 1080. The first mentioned Lord of Heeswijk was Amelricus van Heeswijk mentioned in the twelfth century. Later that century a Hubertus van Heeswijk was mentioned.

Text adapted from “Heeswijk Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Heeswijk Castle ranks #3,308 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #30 of the 201 mapped in Netherlands. Founded c. 1050, it is older than 90% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 325 atlas entries founded in the 11th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,502 times in the last 60 days, more than 59% of the atlas. 10 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Eindhoven, 25 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.

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