Netherlands · 13th century
Polanen Castle ranks #7,804 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #139 of the 198 mapped in Netherlands. Founded c. 1300, it is older than 60% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 1091 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 13 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is The Hague, 10 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.
Polanen Castle was a castle located in today's Monster, South Holland in the Netherlands. The ancestral home of the Polanen family, it suffered a siege in 1351 and was demolished in 1394. It was replaced by a small manor somewhat to the south.
Polanen Castle was located on an island, or inner bailey of 42 by 29 m. The island was surrounded by a 12 m wide moat. On the northeast corner was a tower house or donjon built c. 1300. It measured 11.60 by 11.30 m, and on the inside 7.60 by 7.10 m, making the wall about 2 m thick at the foundation level. At the top the walls were still 1.30 m thick. It was at least 12 m high. The bricks used measured 29-30 * 13-14 * 5–7 cm.
In the 1320s other structures were added to the castle. On the northeast corner of the terrain a small stair tower was added. Its northwest corner was adjacent to the east corner of the tower house. It was identified as a stair tower with privy due to it being open on the water front at floor level. The top of the stair was later found back in the northern moat. The tower had two funnels on the side of the moat. Here its wall was only half a stone (c. 15 cm) thick. On the outside, the surface of the walls of the stair tower had been smoothened and painted red.
The entrance of the tower house was probably on the west side, because two foundation pieces poeren were found near that side. The kitchen and store rooms were in the cool northwest corner of the tower.
South of the tower house was a building of unknown characteristics. Its presence was deduced from debris in the moat. On the northwest corner of the bailey was another building. Part of its northern wall of 75 cm thick was found on the bottom of the moat. Some heavy piles in the moat before this building indicate that the bridge over the moat was located here.
What sets Polanen Castle apart from other solitary tower houses is that it was built on a large site. Most other solitary towers were located on a small island without room for other buildings. It therefore seems that Polanen was all along planned to be expanded, but that this plan was cut short by its demolishment in 1394.
South of the bailey was another terrain of 21 by 21 m. The oldest artefacts found on this terrain dated from 1400, making it the probably location of the manor which succeeded to Polanen Castle after it was finally demolished in 1393.
Text adapted from “Polanen Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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