Slotje De Blauwe Camer

Slotje De Blauwe Camer in Oosterhout, Netherlands, is a small medieval castle erected around 1400 by a member of the local medieval Dutch nobility. It combines elements from the late Gothic and early Renaissance periods and later became the site of a Norbertine convent, which made the complex an important religious and communal centre in the region. The site is one of a group of small local castles and has been part of a larger sacred ensemble known locally as The Holy Triangle; the buildings on the site are protected as a national monument.

The first phase of the building’s life begins with its construction around 1400 by Claes de Voocht Peters Schaertszoon. In 1412 the property changed hands to Herberen van Emmichoven, and in 1420 it passed to the Knights Hospitaller. During the Hospitaller period the site was enlarged; a tower was erected about 1450 and a further storey was added, and the estate acquired additional lands. The Hospitallers departed by the end of the fifteenth century.

In the mid-sixteenth century the house saw further building work and multiple changes of ownership. Between 1544 and 1546 a rear hall was added while Claes Vierling, an official connected with the Nassau accounts chamber, held the property. Ownership then passed through several private hands, including Thomas Gramaye in 1555, the pastor Daniël Henrici van Doerne around 1588, Andries van den Kieboom until 1593, and Jasper van Kinschot from 1593.

On 23 February 1645 the estate was acquired by the Norbertine nuns of Saint Catharinadal when their provost, Balthasar Cruyt, purchased it from Adriaan Verelst, a regional bailiff. In the spring of 1647 a convent complex with four wings and a cloister was added onto the existing castle, and the castle itself became the residence of the provost. Six nuns moved in on 15 June 1647, followed by sixteen more in October of the same year. The convent estate included cultivated land, an orchard, a burial ground and vegetable and medicinal gardens, and the whole complex was surrounded by a moat.

In 1760 the provost at that time, Van Amersfoort, found the convent in poor condition and directed repairs and an enlargement campaign. Bricks for the rebuilding were produced on site during the early 1760s in kilns set up in the orchard. The convent’s water and food supply were improved by the creation of three fish ponds and by sinking a well to serve a small brewery. Shallow burials that were causing odor and instability of graves led the provost to move burials from inside the convent to the cloister garden.

A chapel was erected on the site in 1816 and formally opened on 2 March 1818. In the early nineteenth century the nuns ran classes for poor girls and in 1826 they added a two-classroom school building, which continued in use as a school until 1858 and still stands within the complex. The chapel underwent rebuilding in 1903 and again in 1966. The entire complex was the subject of a restoration campaign in the 1950s, carried out between 1955 and 1959.