Hernen Castle

Overview
Hernen Castle is a landmark at Seest, based on Kasteel Hernen.

Lore
In 1350, construction started on a reinforced keep. Only a few years later, expansion started as the family who owned the tower grew in wealth and influence. By the 15th century, the tower had been turned into a complete castle with a small courtyard, several towers and a moat. Various wealthy families have lived inside Hernen Castle, renovating it often out of necessity or to adapt it to their own preferences. Very little of the original interior has been preserved due to this, but rumours has it that one of the older families once hid some of their things in a secret room in case they ever bought it and bricked it up before they left. The few attempts at finding this room haven't been successful.

Although a rich family still resides in it, ownership of Hernen Castle was given to the Seest Township in 1907.

During WWII, Seest remained a low priority target due to its proximity to Kroosdrichem's sugar factory and Dokmuiden. This, much to the township's pleasure, resulted in Hernen Castle coming out of the war mostly unscathed.



Real life
Hernen Castle was build around 1350 as a simple keep. Over the years it has been expanded multiple times, during which the old courtyard gained more and more buildings. During one of these expansions, Hernen Castle received covered crenellations. It is currently the only Dutch castle with its crenellations covered up.

Ever since the 17th century remains uninhabited, which is part of the reason very little of the castle got rebuild. This, in turn, resulted in the castle's original structures being very well preserved, though the original keep collapsed in the 18th century.

In the 19th century, the appreciation for older buildings grew, resulting in Hernen receiving a lot of restaurations.

Trivia

 * In 1968, the Dutch television show Floris was partially filmed on this location.
 * Jiskpirate, who added Hernen Castle to Streamlined, chose it for this very reason.
 * The series was also filmed on Doornenburg, which is in Streamlined too.

Hernen Castle Wikipedia

 * Dutch

Floris Wikipedia

 * Dutch
 * English