Waardenburg Castle

Waardenburg Castle, sometimes also called Weerdenburg, is a medieval castle located in Waardenburg in the municipality of West Betuwe, in the Dutch province of Gelderland.

The date of foundation of Waardenburg Castle is precisely known: on 5 August 1265, Count Otto II of Gelre gave the villages Hiern, Neerijnen, and Opijnen to Rudolph de Cock, knight, who gave his possessions in Rhenoy in return. When this Rudolph had received the village of Hiern (the old name of the village of Waardenburg) on loan, he wanted to settle there too. So he asked the liege lord for permission to build a house. Count Otto gave permission for this, but the building could not cost more than 300 Leuvense pounds.

Rudolph's eponymous son succeeded him and expanded the house, as did his son Johan later. Only the heiress Agnes came from the marriage of Gerard de Cock and Henrica van Culemborg, who transferred the possessions to Willem van Broeckhuysen through her marriage (shortly before 1385) . He died in 1415 and the building came to the eldest of nine children, namely Willem. When this Willem died soon, it went to his brother Johan van Broeckhuysen (a tall and fat man according to the Waardenburg chronicle), who married Adriana van Brakel. Their son Gerard van Broeckhuysen married Walraven from the Brederode house in 1434. Their son Johan was given access to Waardenburg at the age of about ten and died in 1468. In 1470 his only and minor son Gerard succeeded him. His sister Walraven succeeded him in 1494 and married Otto van Arkel, bringing the building into this family.

In 1574, the castle was destroyed by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I, Prince of Orange. The then resident, Catharina van Gelre, bastard daughter of Karel van Gelre, widow of Walraven van Arkel, was Spanish-minded and refused to surrender. The damage was considerable and the lock never recovered from this blow. Her grandson, Thomas van Thiennes, sold it to Johan Vijgh in 1618. In 1700 it was bought by the Frisian noble family Van Aylva . In 1800 Anna Jacoba Wilhelmina van Aylva married Frederik baron van Pallandt. Until the death of Julie Eliza baroness van Pallandt (1898-1971), the van Pallandt family owned the castle. Waardenburg passed on in 1971 to her great-nephew Jhr. CLH Vredenburch (1932), who transferred it in 1975 on a long lease to Het Geldersch Landschap / Friends of Geldersche Kasteelen.

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

Waardenburg Castle ranks #4,809 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #53 of the 201 mapped in Netherlands. Founded c. 1250, it is older than 69% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 860 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 20 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Utrecht, 30 km away. See how Netherlands compares in the castle statistics.

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