My mother-in-law went through a cancer treatment last year. It all looked good and it seemed that the tumor disappeared. We were all happy until we learned a couple of weeks ago that the cancer returned. We don't know more details yet as she is going through countless tests at the moment, but we wanted to take her mind off things and visit her in The Netherlands. It was an impromptu visit and our only goal was to do something fun for a couple of days together as a family.
She enjoys castles as much as we do, so we took her to the Castle Heeswijk which is located only about 30 minutes from her home as she can't manage to sit in the car much longer anymore. She also asked my brother-in-law and his family to join us, so it turned out to be a big family event. Neither I nor my husband knew that they would be coming and we were surprised to hear our names being called from distance. When we turned around we saw our niece and nephew running towards us. I love them dearly, but spending all day with them is let's say challenging. But let's focus on the positive!
Castle Heeswijk is settled in the countryside of the province North Brabant. It dates back to the 11th century when it was constructed as a wooden fortress on a strategic location near the Aa River. The castle had a defensive as well as residential function for nobility. Its name comes from its original owners - The Heeswijk family. The castle stayed in their ownership until the 14th century and then started to change owners frequently. There were almost 40 owners of the castle!
The castle as we see it today is a result of renovation and expansion in the 19th century. Today, you can visit the castle with a guided tour (if you are part of a bigger group) or you can download an app which will help you to navigate through the castle and its history. This is what we did as our group was not big enough for a tour guide.
Our niece and nephew have endless energy, so we walked around the castle before our tour to tire them out a little bit. They were running around and chased ducks (for some some unknown reason), but they still had way too much energy.
There are a couple of walking trails around the castle. You can only walk around its moat like we did or you can take a longer walk through the countryside.
Castle Heeswijk was changing its appearance over the centuries. The most significant transformation happened during the Gothic era when my favorite feature the pointed arches were added. I couldn't wait to enter the courtyard to get a closer look.
The castle is surrounded by tall trees and you can't see it properly when you approach it, so I was surprised to see so many towers and turrets on the construction. Most castles that we visited are situated on top of hills, but there are no hills in North Brabant which makes castles invisible even from a short distance.
There are residential chambers behind those windows that we will visit.
It was supposed to be about 5 minutes walk, but it took us almost 1 hour with two kids, so I was happy when we finally arrived at the ticket office. We purchased the tickets in advance so we could enter the complex without waiting. There is a small restaurant right behind the ticket office and of course we had to stop there to get some ice cream. Luckily, there was some game through the castle for kids, so once we finished the ice cream we could finally enjoy the tour at our own pace.
We downloaded the audio tour app and were ready to go!
The entrance to the castle is through a drawbridge decorated with statues of lions holding coats of arms of the noble family.
We walked around the courtyard before we entered the castle. My favorite part were the pointed arches decorated with coat of arms. Also, look at the roof. It consists of small tiles in various colors and reminds me of roofs in Barcelona.
There are 3 buildings surrounding the courtyard. The biggest one being the residential house, followed by the event hall and the tower. We were excited to climb the tower, but we ended up being disappointed as there is frankly nothing to see. You climb many stairs just to get to a room with tiny windows that you can't even reach. If you would ever visit the castle don't waste your time and energy climbing up the tower. It is really not worth it.
Let's go inside!
The Knight's Hall is an impressive room with high ceilings, intricate stone work, a fireplace decorated with coat of arms of former owner and medieval armor.
When I entered the place I was in awe of its size. It's not that big itself, but the towering ceiling makes it feel like it was at least double of its actual size.
The central personality of the Knight's hall is Baron Andr茅 depicted on the painting on the right. You might ask why I didn't take a better photo of the painting, but I don't have an answer for that 馃檪
He is known for adding many items to the castle which made him and his family live in sort of a museum.
He wanted to show that he is a descendant of real knights, so he put the coat of arms of his family in the center above the fireplace.
He also placed portraits of his family around the Knight's Hall and we can also see there some paintings of the castle.
The Grand Salon is decorated with portraits of former castle owners as well as their families. The only person that is missing is Alberic who was the last resident of the castle. He didn't have good ties with his family and his will read that nobody could live in the castle until his youngest cousin turned 80 years old. At that time his cousin was only 12 years old!
When the baron bought the castle, he decided to create a dining room here for him and his family. In the 19th century it was trendy to have a Chinese dining room when you had a certain status, so the family quickly adapted as they couldn't miss out on this trend. They decorated the room with large mahogany table, green fabric tapestry and Chinese porcelain. The room is not open to public and we could only see it through the glass protection.
The next room that we visited was The Library. The baron seemed to be obsessed with his family tree and most of the books in the library were there to help him with his family research. He was trying to find out if there were kings or emperors in his family line.
This room used to be The Children's Room. Today, it is one of the most charming rooms in the castle, but I might be biased as I love the color of the walls.
The only item that reminds us that it used to be the children's room is this bed.
I have never visited a castle as diverse as castle Heeswijk. There are many floors and in between those floors some rooms are built within the castle with the view of another rooms. It was confusing to navigate, but it was also interesting to explore those strangely set up rooms.
I have no idea what was the purpose of this room, but its ceiling was about 1 meter high, not more. It was so tiny but they still fit there a closet and they placed paintings on the wall!
The Bedroom is the most medieval room in the castle. Its walls are decorated with wooden panels and there are no paintings or other small details. The wooden panels date back to the beginning of the 17th century which I find impressive.
Yes, Chinese porcelain was very popular at that time, and therefore it's placed at most random places.
It must be heavy to hold this construction all the time...
The White Salon used to be the representative room where the guests were welcomed. It is a beautiful room with lots of porcelain, stucco ceiling and baroque furniture.
Blue walls were popular in the castle. This room had everything what a lady needed. I was surprised to see a crib as I thought that kids were not sleeping in the same room with their parents.
There was a queue in front of this room because of the ceiling made with Chinese porcelain bowls. There are 81 of them, not that I counted 馃檪
There were so many bedrooms that it made me wonder how many people lived in the castle at one point in time.
Have you ever heard of Delft Blue? It's a famous Dutch pottery manufacture and we saw some of their beautiful pieces in the castle too.
The last room that we visited was the kitchen. I wish I had a kitchen of this size! It was full of equipment and I'm sure they were able to cook any delicious meal here.
They were also quite precise with so many scales 馃檪
From the kitchen we headed back to the courtyard where we met with the rest of the family. We got to hear that we were too slow and they were waiting for us FOR AGES. Apparently, it was a tough days for the kids, so they deserved another ice cream. I wish I had parents like this 馃檪
As you can see my mother-in-law doesn't really get the concept of photos with only me in them and kept photobombing me, so this is the best what I could get...
Hope, you have enjoyed our trip.
Thank you for reading.
Cheers!
Martina