Slot Spangen

Spangen Castle (also known as ter Nesse) was a medieval castle near the village Overschie. It has disappeared completely. The Rotterdam city quarter Spangen was named for the castle.

The last visible remains of Spangen Castle disappeared in the second half of the nineteenth century. A Mr. Looys then made a floor plan from what he saw.

In 1942 Spangen Castle was excavated, because an inland harbor for Rotterdam would be constructed in the area. The excavation was led by Jaap Renaud of the Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg. The idea to investigate Rotterdam's antiquities was promoted by Johan Ringers.

The early fourteenth century tower house was the oldest part of the castle. On the floor plan it is marked with XIVA. The tower house was remarkable for having over 2 meter thick walls on the moat sides, and much thinner ones on the court side. The idea was probably to first defend the court side only with an earth breastwork along its moat, and to extend the stone structure later on.

The court side corner of the tower house had a wide protruding foundation. It was probably the foot of a stair tower, because the inner walls were too thin to contain stairs. On the southwest side of the tower house, a privy (tower) extended into the moat. Its exit was topped by masonry arc. Later the opening was closed by a woven matt of withy, perhaps against rats.

In the second construction phase a stone wall was built around the court, see map XIVB and Oorspr. XIVB. Next to the tower house was the gate. The gate had two openings on the moat side (see map), probably for heavy beams that were part of the draw bridge. In the moat two poles were found, that would have supported the bridge. At 20 m outside the gate, the bridgehead was found, albeit from masonry of the last period that the castle was inhabited.

East of the gate a small stretch of an enceinte started, showing its character by the buttresses that supported a protected walkway. Next was probably a tower on the north tip of this castle, but this could not be proven. From the same time dates a wall on the northeast side. Parts of this wall were later integrated as southwest wall of a new northeast wing. This first wall is not a complete square on the floor plan, because some southeastern parts of this wall were not recovered during the excavations.

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

Slot Spangen ranks #7,432 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #189 of the 200 mapped in Netherlands. 13 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Rotterdam, 4 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗