De Haar Castle, Netherlands

April 3, 2009 in Europe

De Haar Castle is the second most famous castle in Netherlands, after the Muiden Castle. It has a gothic fairy tale look to it, along with a rich history to back it up. It was actually reconstructed on the ruins of the original castle and that is what stands in front of us today.
It was originally founded in the 14th century on the sediment deposits going along the river Rhine’s blind arm. It has itself first mentioned in the year 1391. The original castle belonged to one that hailed from the “Van De Haar” family. He was probably a manservant to then reigning “Prince-Bishop of Utrecht” and held enough social status and prestige to build such a house for his residence. In the year of 1449, after the marriage of Josyna De Haar and Dirk Van Zuylen, the property was transferred to the Van Zuylen family. The pentagonal shape, that we get to view today, is because of the reconstruction needed after the destruction of the castle due to some quarrel between the Utrecht city and the bishop in the year of 1482.
Architectural plan
It was mainly of a rough pentagonal shape, with two big towers, with 8.35m as their diameter, on the two corners of the front wall, along with a smaller one at the middle point of the wall on the back. It was specifically used as the dovecot. The entrance was located on the northwestern side of the castle protected by the two other square towers that measured 5m by 5m each. The living quarters inside the castle were on the southeastern along with the southwestern sides of the courtyard.
Afterwards there were no successors of Dirk and Josyna and thus it was inherited by Van Stembor family who was based in Southern Netherlands or present day Belgium. In the middle of the 17th century, it was destroyed by the French troops, after which by fate’s turn, it was one “JJ. Van Zuylen Van Nijevelt”, who gave it to his son, Baron “Etienne Van Zuylen Van Nijevelt”, married to one French baroness “Helene De Rothschild”, of the famous De Rothschild bloodline. As the castle was destroyed by then, he started reconstructing it with renowned Dutch architect of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, named Dr. PHJ. Cuypers. He laid the basis on the original castle but gave a Neo-gothic look to it. He also improved it with electricity, large roof, hall, with a new northeastern entrance, a bailey in the place of the old entrance, etc.
One of the most remarkable parts of the castle that we see now is that it is surrounded by a park, which replaced the Haarzuilens village, and re-shifted it a few kilometers on the western side. The chapel was rebuilt again on the park and around 7000 grown trees were collected and planted in the park to give it its look immediately.
The castle’s interior is decorated with various antiques that had been collected from numerous places across the world, during the tour of the baron and the baroness, and is used as a museum every year but in September, which is the vacation time in the castle of the Van Zuylen Van Nijevelt family - Visit De Haar Castle.