Cannenburgh Castle

The castle stands as a watercastle surrounded by a continuous moat and retains its broadly rectangular 16th-century layout. Each corner carries a nearly square, roofed defensive tower. One corner tower on the north-east is topped by an onion-shaped dome, and the principal south-facing front features a taller onion dome that projects from the façade. Above the former main entrance are carved sandstone elements, including the coat of arms associated with Hendrik van Isendoorn and his wife Sophia Stommel, and a sculpted figure representing Maarten van Rossum.

The approach to the island is marked by a later stone arch bridge, which replaced the original drawbridge and now crosses to the left of the old entrance. At the start of this bridge each side is set with a stone lion head mounted on a pedestal, followed by an iron railing along the span. In the cellar of the house visible building fabric and masonry relate to the earlier fortified dwelling that once stood on the site.

Inside, an elongated narrow terrace behind the entrance opens into a large central hall. To the right of the entrance are the more formal reception rooms: a hunting room known as the “white chamber,” a salon, and the Huysum Room, which contains many oil paintings. To the left lie a bedroom and a dining room; a steep stone spiral stair links the dining space down to the kitchen below. Several rooms retain fireplaces framed with Delft tiles, and the dining room preserves a blue porcelain service that belonged to the van Isendoorn family. A small boudoir is set within the north-east tower.

A stone spiral staircase rises to the first floor where a large upper hall displays numerous oil portraits of leading Gelderland families and a painted family tree of Elbert van Isendoorn à Blois and Maria Hadewig van Essen on the east wall; the hall’s ceiling is lined with wooden planks. First-floor rooms include a library or study known as the Red Room because of its red wallpaper, and a small chapel whose west wall contains a sandstone epitaph that Richard Cleve acquired and inserted after 1900; that stone came from a 16th-century Roman Catholic church in the Duchy of Oldenburg.

Outbuildings and the surrounding park form an integral part of the estate. A long range to the west that formerly housed estate staff now serves as a cultural centre, and the old coach house on the east side functions as the restaurant ’t Koetshuis. The watermill to the north-east operates today with a turbine, and its presence on the property reaches back to at least 1402, with new water channels developed in the later 17th century to feed the mill. In total the castle, its subsidiary buildings and the landscaped grounds extend across 24 hectares of woodland, meadows, garden beds, ponds, canals, cascades and avenues, and the park contains many trees that are several centuries old.