Monuments in Noord-Holland

R. Stenvert en C. Kolman (2006)

Gepubliceerd op 26-03-2018

The Muiderslot in Muiden

betekenis & definitie

(Herengracht 1) is a moat, almost square castle with round corner towers and in the middle of the east facade a square gate tower with drawbridge and masonry bridge. A castle built shortly after 1280 by count Floris V on a sandbank in the mouth of the river Vecht was after his violent death (1296) destroyed in 1297 by the bishop of Utrecht.

On the old foundations the current castle was created in 1369-73 for Albrecht van Beieren. The main house wing (the 'high huys') on the west side contains dungeons, the Ridderzaal and the Prinsenkamer, and on the first floor a weapon room and a bedroom. The lower north-east wing, added in 1386, houses a kitchen and the so-called Bisschopskamer or dining room. On the first floor there is a covered entrance and a chapel with wooden barrel vault (reconstructed). On two sides the lock has crenellated walls with a back on bows of relief. The round corner towers have dungeons at the bottom.

In 1430, Splinter van Nijenrode had a dike built around the castle and from 1577 this dike became part of an earthen wall around Muiden (further modernized 1629). Pieter Cornelisz Hooft, appointed in 1609 as final guardian and drost, founded the Muiderkring. This artistic and learned company gathered at the castle until his death in 1647. After 1795 the castle served for military purposes. An attempted sale for demolition in 1825 by the department of Domains was prevented by King William I. In a restoration carried out in 1895-1910 according to plans by P.J.H. Cuypers and J.W.H. Berden, among other things, reconstructed the battlements and removed a gallery and entrance (1631), commissioned by Hooft. At a subsequent restoration in 1956-'72, several neo-Gothic additions were undone, but the general late-19th-century reconstructions were retained. The castle was then decorated in a 17th-century style as a museum.

A new gatehouse with a bell tower was reconstructed in 1968 at the front of the castle or in the dungeon at the location of a predecessor, designed by H. de Lussanet de Sablonière. The garden was reconstructed in 1954 during the restoration of the surrounding fortifications, as it would have looked like in 1633 and 1672. 19th century draws were demolished and according to plans by J. Mezger a geometric garden was laid out with a deciduous corridor, an orchard and a herb garden (1983 redesign herb garden). In addition, a nut garden, the Warmoeshof, was set up in 1996.