Loevestein Castle

Loevestein Castle is a compact hall tower castle with a U-shaped layout. It consists of a main hall building, two corner towers, a gate tower, and a small inner courtyard once enclosed by a wooden palisade. The main hall measures about 11 by 34 meters and is oriented north-south. Inside, it is divided into a hall and a square chamber, with two floors, an attic, and a vaulted cellar.

The two corner towers, called the Riddertoren to the north and the Keuckentoren to the south, are square and have multiple floors. The Riddertoren was heightened around 1375. The castle walls are made of heavy brick, between 1.6 and 2.2 meters thick, resting on wooden piles and beams. The lowest brick layers were laid without mortar. Oak beams and pine trunks were used in construction.

Surrounding the castle is a moat, partially filled in during the 18th century to create more space within the fort. A bridge connects the castle to a rectangular outer bailey measuring 32 by 43 meters. This bailey features two towers: the Barbarye in the southeast corner, originally square but rebuilt as a round tower called the Kruittoren after damage, and the Bourgoignen in the northwest corner.

The fortifications include two water-filled moats, a covered way, and an irregular five-sided earthwork fort with five bastions. These bastions replaced medieval walls and towers in the late 16th century under William the Silent’s orders, completed by 1595. The northern side has stone walls and wall towers, including a large artillery tower nearly 30 meters in diameter built in the late 15th century.

Over time, various buildings were added inside the fort. Stone barracks replaced earlier wooden huts, and officers’ quarters, a schoolhouse with a teacher’s residence, and storage facilities were constructed. The Kruittoren was adapted for gunpowder storage, and the Nieuwe Arsenaal was built in 1780 for weapons and ammunition.

In 1883, a bombproof concrete shelter was added behind the Kruittoren. It was covered with three meters of sand and 1.2 meters of clay but soon became obsolete due to advances in artillery technology.

The castle’s interior preserves features such as the vaulted cellar from 1853 and the room where Hugo de Groot was imprisoned. Restoration reversed many 17th to 19th-century modifications, restoring much of the medieval appearance.

Loevestein is situated in a floodplain without dikes, making it periodically inaccessible by land during high water. It is surrounded by natural wetlands that form a diverse ecological area.