Middachten Castle

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Aerial view of the castle from the south

Middachten Castle ( Dutch Kasteel Middachten ) is a country castle in the small Dutch village De Steeg , which belongs to the municipality of Rheden in Gelderland . It is not far from the IJssel river and is surrounded by the Middachten estate . The castle was restored from 1967 to 1971 and included in the list of the top 100 Dutch cultural monuments by the Dutch Rijksdienst voor Archeologie, Cultuurlandschap en Monumenten . Since October 11, 2004, the complex, including the castle park and various outbuildings, has been listed as a Rijksmonument .

history

Middachten was first mentioned in 1190, when it was owned by Jacobus de Mithdac. At the beginning of the 14th century, Everardus van Steenre, the progenitor of all later Lords of Middachten, transferred the property to Count Rainald I von Geldern for protection and received it back as a fief from his grandson in 1357 . The castle remained in the possession of his family until 1625. It is thus of medieval origin, but has been repeatedly devastated and rebuilt in a different form. Its current owners are the heirs of Franz Graf zu Ortenburg . It is not inhabited.

Garden development

Part of today's palace gardens

After the current castle was built from 1693 to 1698, the creation of the garden began. The gardens of Versailles were the model for the basic planning (walls, canals and paths) of the garden between 1700 and 1725. Within this structure, a formal garden was created with trimmed hedges, trimmed trees, and steep embankments. At the end of the 18th century the English landscape garden became modern and the Middachten garden adapted to this fashion to a limited extent. The hedges disappeared, gently sloping lawns were created and groups of trees were planted. The influence of Eduard Petzold can be found in the many rhododendron groups . In 1990 Hugo Poortman, a student of the French garden architect Eduard André, was commissioned by Count and Countess Bentinck-Van-Heeckeren van Wassenaer to create a formal garden again. Essential aspects of the English landscape garden should be preserved.

building

View of the castle from the southeast

The castle is a square brick building from the late 17th century, on all four sides risalits has. The vestibule and the staircase in the Louis quatorze style are of particular architectural importance . In most of the other rooms, the old chimneys, wall coverings and stucco ceilings have been preserved.

There are some old outbuildings on the surrounding estate. The castle used to belong to other extensive lands. The buildings on this former property can still be recognized by their color: red and white. A particularly good example of this is the De Steeg post office.

literature

  • Martijn Pieters: Castle tour 2006 in the Netherlands. German Castle Association, Braubach 2006, pp. 38–40.
  • Ronald Stenvert, Chris Kolman, Sabine Broekhoven, Ben Olde Meierink, Marc Tenten: Monuments in Nederland. Gelderland. Waanders, Zwolle 2000, ISBN 90-400-9406-3 , pp. 133-134 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Middachten Castle  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Entry of the castle building in the national list of monuments of the Netherlands , accessed on March 5, 2018.
  2. ^ History of Middachten , accessed March 5, 2018.

Coordinates: 52 ° 1 '8.2 "  N , 6 ° 4' 11.3"  E