Meerburg: A Medieval Castle and Country Estate in Zoeterwoude
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.9
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Netherlands
- Primary era
- Unclassified
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Unclassified
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Meerburg is a medieval castle and later country estate in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands. The castle had been built before 1316, when it was recorded as Nieburch. The name may indicate a new construction, although it could also refer to the rebuilding of an older stronghold.
Medieval castle and feudal ownership
In 1319, the count of Holland granted Meerburg as a feudal holding to the Van Meerburgh family. A feudal holding was land held from a superior lord in return for obligations and recognition of that lord’s authority. In 1356, the property passed by inheritance to Willem van der Made.
Toward the end of the fourteenth century, Pieraart van Assche of Dordrecht acquired Meerburg. The property then became allodial, meaning that it was held as free ownership rather than as a feudal holding. It consequently ceased to appear in the feudal registers, and little is known about its later owners during this period.
War, fire, and rebuilding
The castle was destroyed around 1420 during the Hook and Cod Wars, a prolonged series of political and military conflicts in medieval Holland between rival noble and urban factions. It was subsequently rebuilt.
In 1574, during the Siege of Leiden, Meerburg was set on fire. The siege formed part of the Dutch Revolt, when Leiden was held by Dutch rebels against Spanish forces. Leiden may have ordered the castle’s destruction to prevent its occupation by the Spanish army, although the Spanish forces themselves may also have destroyed it. Meerburg was restored after the fire.
From castle to country estates
Robert de Coutreau owned Meerburg in 1610 and sold it around 1640 to the brothers Jacob and Pieter de la Court. By then, the castle had become dilapidated. The brothers therefore built separate country estates nearby, both named Meerburg. A country estate, or buitenplaats, was a residence with service buildings and landscaped grounds used by wealthy urban or elite owners.
Jacob de la Court’s estate was described as the Meerburg manor house in 1735. Its mansion became dilapidated toward the end of the eighteenth century and was rebuilt. In 1855, a small Catholic church was built on the Hoge Rijndijk, and the mansion was converted into its parsonage. The church was replaced by the Meerburg Church in 1896.
The mansion proved unsuitable as a parsonage and was demolished in 1921. A new parsonage was erected on its foundations, incorporating several façade stones and decorative elements from the former mansion into its front façade. In the 1970s, the location associated with the medieval castle was marked above ground by creating a square castle island surrounded by a moat. This arrangement does not reproduce the medieval site accurately: the medieval island was round, and the created island occupies the former outer bailey, a subsidiary enclosed area, rather than the main castle site. The main castle lay beneath the Produktieweg, just southeast of the square island.
Remains
Meerburg’s surviving physical evidence combines landscape features created to mark the medieval site with reused elements from the later estate. The castle was associated with a round, moated island and a polygonal plan, while the modern commemorative island is square and occupies the area of the former outer bailey. The principal medieval castle site lies beneath the Produktieweg to its southeast.
Medieval castle evidence
A drawing made by Abraham Rademaker in 1725 shows Meerburg as a moated, polygonal castle on a round island. Its reliability is uncertain because the castle had already been demolished, and Rademaker may have based the image on an older depiction. A map from 1614 also shows a round, moated area, supporting the association of Meerburg with a circular island. The square island created in the 1970s is surrounded by a moat, but it represents the former outer bailey rather than the main castle site and does not reproduce the castle’s medieval round form.
De la Court estate and parsonage
Jacob de la Court’s estate, described in 1735, included a mansion with a basement, a coach house, stabling, an orangery, and extensive gardens. An orangery was a garden building designed to cultivate and protect citrus trees and other plants from cold weather. The two De la Court estates stood near the Hoge Rijndijk. Pieter’s house was positioned between the road and the river, while Jacob’s stood on the inland side of the road.
Several façade stones and decorative elements from Jacob de la Court’s former mansion survive in the front façade of the later parsonage. They preserve material from the estate after the mansion’s demolition and its replacement by the building constructed on the earlier foundations.
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