Netherlands · 13th century
Merckenburg Castle, also known as Castle Heukelum, is a brick castle in the town of Heukelum in the municipality of West Betuwe in The Netherlands. It dates back to the 13th century. The castle has been destroyed and rebuilt twice. The first time was in the fourteenth century, the second time in the disaster year 1672, when the French blew up the building during the Franco-Dutch War. The castle was restored around 1700, attached to the keep that had not been destroyed by the explosions.
The castle is a square building, approximately 1 km east of Heukelum, located on the Lingedijk in the middle of a wide canal . Since the municipal reorganization in 1986, the castle has belonged to the province of Gelderland, before that to South Holland.
Text adapted from “Merckenburg Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Heukelum Castle ranks #7,562 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #126 of the 198 mapped in Netherlands. Founded c. 1250, it is older than 67% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 1090 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 23 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Utrecht, 24 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.
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