Kasteel Strijen: A Medieval Castle in the Netherlands
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Netherlands
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Brabant, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
Kasteel Strijen is a medieval castle in Oosterhout, the Netherlands, begun around 1289 by Willem van Strijen on land near the Oosterhoutse Broek. The site lay on the border between the County of Holland and the Duchy of Brabant: the surrounding area was in Holland, while the castle itself stood in Brabant. Its position gave the stronghold a place in the political landscape of the medieval Low Countries.
Foundation and noble ownership
Willem van Strijen acquired the land and began building the castle around 1289. After his death, ownership passed through his daughter, Beatrijs van Putten en Strijen, to the lords of Putten and Strijen. In 1324, the wealthy nobleman Willem van Duvenvoorde acquired the castle and greatly enlarged it. His expansion created a more extensive residence and defensive complex.
Willem van Duvenvoorde was followed by his illegitimate son, Willem van Oosterhout. When the Van Oosterhout family died out, the lords of Nassau held the castle, and a castellan, or resident castle governor, was living there by the middle of the sixteenth century. The property later passed to Jan I van Polanen and then to the successive lords of Breda. Folk tradition also associates the castle with Johanna van Polanen, who was said to stay there regularly to write or attend to other matters.
War damage and dismantling
The castle was severely damaged during the Eighty Years’ War, the long conflict in which the Dutch Revolt against Habsburg rule developed. In 1572, its loyalist castellan, Leonard van Boischot, held the castle against the Geuzen, rebel forces in the Dutch Revolt. Rebels captured the stronghold in 1573, and a later attempt by loyalist troops to retake it failed despite the use of cannon. Rebel troops still occupied the castle in 1577.
The damage was probably so extensive that the castle was not repaired and never rebuilt. In 1617, the lords of Strijen authorized the ruined buildings to be reused as a source of brick. The material could be carried away through Oosterhout’s inland harbor, and in the same year Filips Willem, Prince of Orange, was recorded as granting permission for the rubble to be reused.
Gunpowder was used in 1753 to help remove bricks from the ruins. The huge keep, the principal fortified tower of a medieval castle, was probably blown up at that time. Approximately one-third of the tower remained standing. Restoration of this surviving fragment began in 1885, and new bricks were produced from about 1888 to conserve the ruins.
Archaeological investigation and protection
A major excavation in 1974, led by amateur archaeologists under Jan Oomen, investigated the keep and exposed the foundations of its walls. The work also revealed a water gate on the western side, facing the outer moat. In 1985, archaeologists examined the ground between the inner and outer moats. They identified its northern and southern sections and two quay walls, allowing the former layout to be reconstructed with reasonable confidence.
Ground-drill investigations in 2015 showed that the castle site and its outer courtyard were covered by a debris layer several decimetres thick. The ruins are protected as a Rijksmonument, a site or structure safeguarded through the Netherlands’ national monument system. On 15 January 2016, the surviving property was transferred from the Dutch State’s Rijksgebouwendienst to the Monumentenbezit foundation.
Remains
Castle plan and defensive setting
Kasteel Strijen was originally almost square in plan. The keep stood at the northwest corner, while wings extended along the northern, western, and southern sides. A single moat surrounded the main castle, and a wooden bridge approached it from the north. Willem van Duvenvoorde added an eastern wing, possibly accompanied by a second square tower at the southeast corner, and expanded the defenses with a double moat.
The main castle had three storeys, while the tower rose six storeys. The surviving ruin now stands on an island surrounded by ditches and linked to the surrounding area by a bridge. Protective fencing encloses the fragment. It is also known as the Slotbosse Tower, a name associated with the former oak woodland around the castle.
Keep and surviving tower
Surviving tower fragment
Only portions of the tower’s northern and western walls survive above ground. The fragment is approximately 25 to 27 metres high, equivalent to six floors, and represents about one-third of the original tower after its probable demolition with gunpowder in 1753. The surviving masonry preserves the scale of the castle’s principal fortified structure and forms the most prominent remnant of the medieval complex.
Keep foundations and interior
The 1974 excavation established that the keep had an interior measuring 8.45 metres square. Its northern and southern walls were 2 metres thick, while the western wall measured 1.75 metres. These dimensions gave the keep approximate external measurements of 12.5 by 12 metres.
Inside the keep were two vaults and additional walls that had been inserted later. These remains may represent the prison mentioned in 1475. On the eastern side of the keep’s northern wall, excavators found a refuse chute with numerous artefacts beneath it.
Moats, water access, and occupation evidence
Water gate and quay walls
A water gate stood on the western side of the castle grounds, facing the outer moat. Two quay walls ran along the inner side of the ground between the moats. Together with the excavated moat sections, these features clarify how water defenses and access points were arranged around the castle.
Pottery and changing occupation
Early-fourteenth-century pottery was scarce around the keep but occurred south of the main castle. This distribution suggests that Willem van Duvenvoorde occupied the newer parts of the expanded complex when he was present. In the late fourteenth century, habitation appears to have shifted back toward the keep and the northern wing.
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