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 The Top 100 Dutch heritage sites is a list of rijksmonuments in the Netherlands, established in 1990 by the Department for Conservation ( Monumentenzorg, today the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed). The Top 100 was a selection of historical ...

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 and his spouse Ursula van Raesfelt then had the castle rebuilt, based on the example of

Het Loo Palace Het Loo Palace ( nl, Paleis Het Loo , meaning "The Lea") is a palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, built by the House of Orange-Nassau. History The symmetrical Dutch Baroque building was designed by Jacob Roman and Johan van Swieten and was bui ...

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. It is located about 60 km east of Utrecht, 60 km west of Enschede, 25 km north of Arnhem and 35 km south of Zwolle. The ...

. It was designed by Jacobus Roman (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 Édouard François André (17 July 1840 – 25 October 1911) was a French horticulturalist, landscape designer, as well as a leading landscape architect of the late 19th century, famous for designing city parks and public spaces in Lithuania, ...

). 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.

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