Slot Moermond

Moermond Castle is a castle in Renesse on Schouwen-Duiveland.

The first castle was built northeast of the current castle. It was a water castle that was destroyed in about 1297. The first castle was never seen till it was rediscovered during the 1956 excavations.

This first castle was polygonal. Judging from the estimated one third that was found in the 1950s, it formed a rough circle. The wall was about 1.60 m wide, and has small outward protrusions on the corners. On the northwest side a square tower was part of the wall. Its walls were 2.25 m thick. As this tower interrupts the line of the wall, one might suppose that it was a gatehouse, like that of Egmond Castle.

The parts that were uncovered allowed archaeologists to calculate that the diameter of the circle would have been about 60 m. On the inside of the wall, clusters of foundation piles were found at regular intervals, see plan with excavations. Judging from the place and form of the clusters, these supported the foundation feet of buttresses, which supported a chemin de ronde. The piles stood in the peat moer ground, which explains the name Moermont.

In the center of the terrain, two sides of a square building were uncovered. On its corner were vestiges of a stair tower. The configuration of the first castle is reminiscent of the polygonal Burcht of Voorne, which was built somewhat later. Even so, there are no indications that Moermond was a Motte-and-bailey castle like Voorne.

After the excavations, the walls of the first castle were consolidated. They can now be seen at the edge of the other side of one of the current Moermond castle's moats.

The second castle stood south of the current castle on the same island. Its core was a tower house measuring 6 by 10 m on the inside. On the southeast side it had two round towers. On its western corner was a connected privy tower with waste funnel. This tower house dated from before 1339. The brick used in this building was repurposed brick from the first castle.

From this tower house, a wall led to the northwest. Its connection to the current castle could not be clearly established in the 1950s. Another question that was not answered at the time, was the location of the wall that one might suppose to have to been located to the east of the wall that was found.

At the northern edge of the second castle there was a gatehouse.

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

Slot Moermond ranks #4,481 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #49 of the 200 mapped in Netherlands. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Middelburg, 29 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗