Castle ruins - Heusden, NL - Preserved Architectural Remnants and Ruins on Waymarking.com

Heusden Castle was a castle in Heusden and probably dates from the 12th century. It may have been on a south-north running water that connected the Oude Maasje with the new Maas bed. This was dammed in 1250 (Husdenredam). The city of Heusden developed near the castle.

In 1948, under the leadership of the archaeologist J.G.N. Renaud with the scientific excavations at the castle. They found, as usual, an outer castle and a main castle. The main castle had an octagonal defense tower with a diameter of 8 meters and a wall thickness of 2 meters, and a square residential tower of 10 by 10 meters. All this was built from natural stone and founded on the ground level, after which the castle mound or motte was raised. At the end of the 13th century a ring wall with buttresses was built. A moated castle was thus created, which came into the hands of Brabant in 1328 and was further expanded in 1335 by order of Duke John III of Brabant, including an octagonal keep of 40 meters high and with walls up to 4 meters thick. This was built into the canal. Not much later the castle came back into Dutch hands.

Around 1425, Jacoba van Beieren regularly took refuge in the castle. The castle remained intact for centuries and was drawn by Roelant Roghman in the 17th century. The gunpowder tower disaster in 1680, when lightning struck the keep that was used as a gunpowder warehouse, killed the castle. At the time, the tower contained 16,000 pounds of gunpowder, hand grenades and stench pots. The castle was almost completely destroyed and many houses in the vicinity were also destroyed. Only the walls of a square tower partially survived. This tower was restored somewhat, but in 1823 total demolition followed.

Present day
After the excavations, the foundations were covered again in 1949 and a deer park appeared on the site of the castle. In 1987 it was decided to partially reconstruct the castle, albeit in a much smaller size than it had been until 1680. This was judged to be a failure, as the walls erected did not conform to the shape of the actual castle.

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Type: Ruin Fee: no Hours: 24/7 Related URL: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   06/29/2024 Polllen visited it