Egmond Castle

Egmond Castle, locally known as "Slot op den Hoef", is situated in a park in the village of Egmond aan den Hoef in the North Holland province in the Netherlands.

The castle originally consisted of a moated, square main castle and a moated, rectangular outer ward with a strong gate house. Only a fragment of the square "Rentmeester"-tower, which was part of the west wall of the outer ward, is still standing.

In 1203, Wouter, Lord of Egmont built a stone, circular castle with a diameter of 27 meters. It had a strong keep at its south side and its curtain wall had a wall-walk on arches. This stronghold, which existed until the end of the 15th century, mostly served as a place for refuge in times of peril. The residential buildings stood on an outer ward surrounded by a wooden palisade.

Around 1285, Willem II, Lord of Egmont started the construction of a new castle on the eastern side of the outer ward as a replacement for the old castle. At the same time he built a new rectangular outer ward on the western side of the old ward.

After this castle was destroyed by the Frisians in 1321, John I, Lord of Egmond rebuilt the castle. Around 1400 a canal was dug to Alkmaar making the castle reachable by boat. Also, a harbor was constructed at the northeastern side of the castle. In the 15th century, John III, the first Count of Egmond and counselor of Mary of Burgundy, enlarged, renovated and embellished the castle. The moat between the castle and the outer ward became known as "the Pond" as it was closed off at the northern and southern side by watergates. The outer ward was equipped with an imposing gatehouse with four corner towers.

In 1573 however, the castle was set on fire by the troops of Diederick Sonoy on orders of William the Silent, to prevent the Spanish from capturing this strategic site. From then on, the castle remained a ruin.

The ruins of Egmond Castle were sold in 1798 and subsequently demolished except for the "Rentmeester"-tower. In 1832 however, this tower also was largely torn down, after which the foundations of Egmond Castle slowly disappeared under the shifting sands.

In the 1930s, the castle's foundations were excavated. It lay as a small island in a marsh full of rushes and reed. As the excavations were carried out as part of unemployment relief works, a lot of findings weren't properly analyzed and a lot of details were lost. They did however discover the earliest, circular castle, which was unsuspected at the time, and a lot of natural stone ornaments, iron, and copper weapons and pottery. The foundations were then built up to 30-40 cm above ground level using stones found at the site.

Nowadays, it isn't a very exciting site, but the castle's layout is clearly recognizable. The site is freely accessible.

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