Heeswijk Castle

Just outside the village of Heeswijk-Dinther lies in the middle of a beautiful landscape the majestic Heeswijk Castle. The first castle was build on a 'motte' in the eleventh century. This building, probably made of wood was to be replaced with a stone house. In the cellars of the present castle you can see the remains of it. The present house was build about 1371. During the Eighty Years' War prince Maurits of Orange tried to take the castle twice, once in 1601 and again in 1603, both without result. Prince Frederik Hendrik took the house finally in 1629, and made it to his headquarters during the siege of 's-Hertogenbosch. In 1672 took the French the castle, and again it became militairy headquarters, this time for Louis XIV, king of France. In 1794 the English lieutenant-general Ralph Abercrombie settled down at Heeswijk in a last attempt to stop the upon marching French. This was in vain; again the French took the house. According to a will from 1895 the house had to remain empty for 68 years. (See: Nemerlaer Castle) They started with restorations in 1951, then in 1985, and the restoration of the exterior was completed in 1999/2000.

Heeswijk Castle, in the front the so-called 'Iron Tower,'
build in the nineteenth century.

In the middle-ages a knight called Robert, had the intention to kill the lover of his daughter. Armed he went away on his horse to wait for the man in the woods around the castle. His horse was lead astray and stepped into the swamp. Both horse and knight sank away in the depts of the swamp. The restless ghost of Robert haunts the grounds around his former castle, but he can't enter the house. He manifests himself as a blue flame floating above the ground.

The backside of Heeswijk Castle.