Kasteel Radboud

Kasteel Radboud in Medemblik, Netherlands, is a late thirteenth‑century water castle erected for Count Floris V of Holland, built as a medieval fortress of the County of Holland. Constructed in the period commonly called the Middle Ages and described as a coercion fortress, it formed part of a chain of strongholds intended to prevent incursions and to exert control over the West Frisian population. The date of origin is debated: an Italian account places construction around 1283 because the building stood during the St. Lucia flood of 13 December 1287, while French and Dutch accounts give the year 1288.

During the late thirteenth century the castle served a clear military and political purpose, sited beside the harbour to project authority and to hinder hostile landings. A legend recorded by Cornelius Aurelius in his Divisiekroniek of 1517 claimed the castle occupied the foundations of a fortress belonging to the Frisian king Radboud, a tradition that circulated in the early sixteenth century and linked the site to local Frisian memory. In 1517 the castle sheltered the townspeople of Medemblik during an attempted pirate attack, and that same year it endured a siege by Frisian rebel forces led by Pier Gerlofs Donia and Wijerd Jelckama.

The castle’s military value declined after the town built substantial walls in the 1570s; with the erection of these new defences the stronghold lost its role as a refuge and fell into disuse. From 1661 until 1734 the large hall in the south‑west wing was put to ecclesiastical use as a Protestant church, and the square tower in the west wing was rebuilt to serve as a belfry. In the nineteenth century significant removals altered the complex: the main gateway and three towers were taken down in 1850 and two additional towers were demolished in 1870, accelerating its ruination.

The ruins entered state ownership between 1889 and 1890 and underwent a major restoration campaign in the 1890s under the supervision of the prominent Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers. After that work the building housed a courthouse from 1897 until 1934. On 4 September 1939 Rembrandt’s painting The Night Watch was temporarily placed in the castle for safekeeping, before being moved to a dune bunker near Castricum in May 1940. A fire in an outbuilding in 1931 exposed the remains of an older tower in the northern part of the site, and the surrounding moat was reinstated in 1936. A further restoration in 1964 aimed to return aspects of the complex to its medieval appearance. The state retained ownership until 15 January 2016, when the property passed to the Organisation of National Monuments, and the site is listed as a rijksmonument under number 28386.