Kasteel Helmond

Helmond Castle is a square medieval moated castle in the center of the city Helmond in the Dutch province of North Brabant.

Construction of the current castle started around 1325. This served to replace an older castle (known as 't Oude Huys), which stood a few hundred meters west of the present castle, and whose excavations in 1981 have revealed the foundations of a stone keep and objects.

In the twelfth century, the area around Helmond was part of the possessions of the van Hornes. The current castle was initially owned by the van Berlaer family who were vassals to the Duke of Brabant. In 1433 this family was succeeded by the van Cortenbach family. In 1683 the castle passed into the hands of the Arberg family by marriage. The mint master Carel Frederik Wesselman bought the manor with the castle Helmond in 1781.

In 1549 a fierce fire raged in the castle, in which especially the west wing and the roofs of the building were damaged. Complete destruction has certainly not taken place. Evidence of this was found in later renovations in the 20th century .

In 1921, the ownership of the castle was transferred to the municipality of Helmond by the widow of the last lord of the castle Carel Frederik Wesselman van Helmond, jkvr. Anna Maria de Jonge van Zwijnsbergen and her two daughters, on the condition that the castle was only used for the municipal administration. or intended for other public use. After a thorough renovation, the castle was taken into use as a town hall from 1923 onwards. The space became too small in the 1970s. A new town hall was put into use. Of the municipal functions, 2 wedding halls and the council chamber remained in use. In 2001 the council chamber moved to a new location in nearby Boscotondo . Museum Helmond has been in the castle since 1982established. The castle is also used as a wedding location.

The current castle was designed as a square water castle with a round tower at each corner and no central residential tower or keep, very similar in ground plan to similar castles such as Muiden Castle, Radboud Castle, or Ammersoyen Castle. These square castles turned out to have better defensive qualities than older round castles. The ground plan of the castle measures approximately 35 X 35 meters. The diameter of the corner towers is approximately 8 meters.

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

Kasteel Helmond ranks #5,323 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #61 of the 201 mapped in Netherlands. Founded c. 1325, it is older than 61% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 604 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Eindhoven, 13 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.

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