Castle Map

Castle

Kasteel Maurick

Netherlands · 16th century

Founded
c. 1504
Heritage status
Rijksmonument
Location
Vught
Coordinates
51.65842°, 5.30627°
Links
Wikimedia Commons
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Kasteel Maurick in the Netherlands
Photo: M. Trum - Vught · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Description

Maurick Castle is a castle in Vught, Netherlands. It had many famous owners and visitors.

The current castle has a rather illogical form. The core is formed by a seemingly very large main building 'glued' to a gate building of the same height. The core makes a very defendable impression, but together with some other buildings, it is on an island way too large to makes sense from a defensive point of view. This suggests that the castle is on the outer bailey of a preceding castle.

The gate building probably dates from the early fifteenth century. The main building with the overhanging towers, just west of the gate, seems a single 4 windows wide structure, but this is not the case. In fact the part with the two windows directly below and between the overhanging towers belongs to the original main building, and probably dates from 1504-1509. The part immediately adjacent to the west is an early nineteenth century regularization of some earlier parts, and contains part of a Gothic tower of unknown date. The wide part of the main building directly behind these two parts, and the partly octagonal tower on the courtyard probably also date from 1504-1509.

The west wing on the north side is of a later date. The heavily changed east wing dates from the seventeenth century. The orangery on the courtyard is of a still later date. Perhaps an archaeological investigation might one day give more certainty about the earliest phases and strange composition of the castle.

Maurick Castle is situated on an island in a dead meander of the Dommel. Originally, it was just across the harbor of Vught, which was one of the most important trading stations in Brabant before 's-Hertogenbosch was founded. The founders were the Lords of Vught. When the territory was later mentioned for the first time, it was said to include a hill, later even a hill with a house on it. Therefore there might have been motte-and-bailey predecessor of the current castle.

The Liescep family from 's-Hertogenbosch are the first known owners of the site. John Liescep (?-1352) son of Gijsbrecht Liescep was mentioned as a landowner owning a hill in 1312. In 1355 his son Gijsbrecht Liescep (?- c 1374) was mentioned as owning some land with a hill near Vught. There was no mention of a building on this hill, but this is not necessary for it to have been a motte-and-bailey castle.

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

In the rankings

Kasteel Maurick ranks #8,245 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #138 of the 213 mapped in Netherlands. Founded c. 1504, it is older than 43% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 933 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. 10 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Tilburg, 19 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.

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