Castle Map

Castle

Kasteel Maarsbergen

Netherlands

Heritage status
Rijksmonument
Location
Utrechtse Heuvelrug
Coordinates
52.0456°, 5.40141°
Links
Wikimedia Commons
Open on the map →Wikipedia (NL) ↗
Kasteel Maarsbergen in the Netherlands
Photo: Kasteelbeer · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl · Wikimedia Commons

Description

Maarsbergen is a castle-like country house and estate near Maarsbergen, municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug, in the Dutch province of Utrecht.

The land around Maarsbergen was in the early Middle Ages for a large part the property of the knightly estate of Berne near Heusden. The knight Fulco (Folcoldus) of Berne came into possession of the properties in Maarsbergen when he married the daughter of the lord of Heusden. In 1134 Fulco donated his possessions, including Maarsbergen, to the Norbertine monks, and the foundation of an abbey was confirmed by Bishop Andries of Utrecht. This monastery was destroyed in 1218 and 1430 and rebuilt again, after which it served as a dwelling for provosts who leased the land from the abbey of Berne. It was thereafter known as the Proosdijhuis.

In 1610 it was still recorded as a moated, fortified farm with a duck decoy (the present nature reserve De Kom). Until 1621 the property remained a grange of the abbey of Berne, after which the last provost was dismissed for mismanagement.

After the Peace of Münster the lands were confiscated in 1648 by the States of Holland. They sold it in 1656 to the Amsterdam merchant Samuel de Marez. The Proosdijhuis was by then already in a very neglected state, and De Marez decided to build a new house at another place, the present Kasteel Maarsbergen. The old provostry was still marked on the map in 1676; it stood near the present farm "de Koedam", where old wall remains were still found in 1870.

Until 1764 the castle remained in the possession of the de Marez family. In the 17th century it already had broadly its present appearance. The two round corner towers were demolished in 1804 but rebuilt again in 1930.

In 1882 Karel Antonie Godin de Beaufort bought the house, which has remained family property ever since. The best-known resident was the racing driver Carel Godin de Beaufort.

Machine-translated from “Maarsbergen (huis)” on the Dutch Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Kasteel Maarsbergen ranks #8,620 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #154 of the 213 mapped in Netherlands. 22 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Utrecht, 20 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.

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