Middachten Castle (Dutch: ''Kasteel Middachten'') is a monumental manor house, located on the Middachten estate,

De Steeg De Steeg is a Dutch village within the municipality of Rheden. Due to its central location within the municipality, it houses the town hall. Middachten Castle is located near the village. Several De Steeg buildings once belonged to the Middachten ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The current building dates from 1693-1698. The castle is a

rijksmonument A rijksmonument (, ) is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. At the end of February 2015, the Netherlands ...

since October 11, 2004, and is part of the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites.

History

The first mention of a castle on this location dates from 1190, owned by Jacobus de Mithdac. Early in the 14th century Everardus van Steenre transferred its ownership to Reinald, count of Gelre. Everardus then got the castle back as a loan in 1357. The castle would remain with this family until 1625. During this time the castle was destroyed and rebuilt several times. In 1673

Stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198) * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...

conquered the city of Bonn, making the occupying French troops retreat, who destroyed the castle.

Godard van Ginkel Godard van Reede, 1st Earl of Athlone, Baron van Reede, Lord of Ginkel, born in the Netherlands as Baron Godard van Reede (14 June 1644 – 11 February 1703), was a Dutch general in Williamite service who rose to prominence during the Williamite ...

and his spouse Ursula van Raesfelt then had the castle rebuilt, based on the example of Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn. It was designed by

Jacobus Roman A Jacobus is an English gold coin of the reign of James I, worth 25 shillings. The name of the coin comes from the Latin inscription surrounding the King's head on the obverse of the coin, IACOBUS D G MAG BRIT FRA ET HI REX ("James, by the grace o ...

(1640-1716) and

Steven Vennecool Steven Jacobsz Vennekool (1660–1719) was an 18th-century architect from the Northern Netherlands. He was born and died in Amsterdam. He was an assistant to Jacob van Campen, along with Pieter Post, Arent van 's Gravesande, Bartholomeus D ...

(1657-1719). After the castle was rebuilt in 1698 a garden was built, based on the garden in Versailles in the period 1700-1725. In the late 18th century British style gardens became fashion, and the gardens were redone in this style. In 1900 count and countess Bentinck-Van Heeckeren of Wassenaer had the gardens partially rebuilt in the original style by Hugo Poortman (a student of French garden artist Édouard André). The castle used to have an extensive estate. However these are no longer owned by the owners of the castle. Buildings that used to belong to the castle estate can be recognized by the red and white coloring, for example the

Post office in De Steeg The post office in De Steeg is a monumental building located on Hoofdstraat 21 in De Steeg, Rheden, the Netherlands. It was built in 1905, by order of count Bentinck (the owner of Middachten Castle), based on a design by G. J. Uiterwijk. Due to t ...

References

External links

www.middachten.nl
Site about Middachten Castle {{coord, 52.019167, 6.069722, type:landmark_region:NL, format=dms, display=title Rijksmonuments in Gelderland Castles in Gelderland Rheden