Castle Map

Castle

Kasteel Well

Netherlands · 14th century

Founded
c. 1350
Heritage status
Rijksmonument complex
Location
Bergen
Coordinates
51.55236°, 6.08897°
Links
Wikimedia Commons
Open on the map →Wikipedia ↗
Kasteel Well in the Netherlands
Photo: Stevieled5 · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

Well Castle (Dutch: Kasteel Well) is a fully restored 14th century medieval castle located in the small village of Well, in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located near the border with Germany, and it is approximately 2 hours southeast of Amsterdam. Kasteel Well itself is made up of two buildings: the Main Castle and the voorburcht, or outer castle. There are two courtyards within Kasteel Well. There are also two moats: an inner and outer moat. These moats once provided protection to the castle and today provide a place to swim for many birds including multiple varieties of ducks, black swans, and geese. Kasteel Well's gardens are available for the public to walk around and admire the grounds.

Here there are several well-maintained flower beds, shrubbery, fountains, tower ruins, and trees. Kasteel Well also has several accessory buildings, including a barn than is sometimes used for community events like weddings, among other events, and a tea house that has been converted into a student kitchen.

Emerson College obtained Kasteel Well in 1988 and since then has been using it to house students participating in a study abroad program. Over the years since it was obtained by Emerson, they have made several renovations, the latest of which added new rooms bringing the student capacity per semester to around 90 students.

Every fall and spring semester, approximately eighty students from Emerson's Boston, Massachusetts, campus live in and take classes at Kasteel Well. The classes at the castle have a European focus. The program is headed by program directors Daan Lodder and Rob Dückers. Students studying at the castle have class a maximum of four days per week (Monday-Thursday) and therefore have three-day weekends for travel.

Text adapted from “Kasteel Well” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Kasteel Well ranks #8,123 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #132 of the 213 mapped in Netherlands. Founded c. 1350, it is older than 55% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 797 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. 7 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Roermond, 41 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.

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