Keenenburg Castle

Keenenburg Castle, locally known as Kasteel Keenenburg, lies in the village of Schipluiden, in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands.

Keenenburg Castle was built in 1411 by Philips de Blote, a trustee of the Count of Holland. It started as a rectangular tower house with 1.5 meter thick walls. It stood on a substantial larger, square piece of land, surrounded by a moat. On a similar moated piece of land, east of the castle, a bailey was built. During the 15th century the castle was successively enlarged. The final castle must have looked defensible but it certainly wasn't up to 15th century military standards with its 75 centimeter thick walls.

However, at the beginning of the 80-Years War, around 1573, William of Orange ordered the demolition of Keenenburg Castle. This was to prevent the castle from falling into the hands of the advancing Spanish troops. The castle was then owned by the Van Egmond family. But before these demolition orders could be carried out, the castle already fell into the hands of the Spaniards. The following years of fighting caused a lot of damage to the castle and destroyed the bailey. Later the castle was rebuilt by Otto van Egmond.

During the 16th century a new bailey was built north of the castle, parallel to the river Gaag. The castle was torn down around 1798; the French era.

Between 1956 and 1989 the castle was completely excavated during several campaigns.

The present remains were built in 1999, with recovered stones, on top of the excavated foundations of the south-west turret and connecting walls. The rest of the site was built over and partially turned into a park.

In recent years a plan emerged to build a copy of the castle in its 17th century appearance south of the village.

At present the site of Keenenburg Castle is freely accessible.

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