Kasteel Waardenburg

The origins of Kasteel Waardenburg date back to 1265, when Count Otto II of Gelre granted lands in Hiern to the knight Rudolph de Cock. Rudolph was permitted to build a house there, with costs limited to 300 pounds. His son, also Rudolph, and later his son Johan, continued the construction. Through the marriage of the heiress Agnes de Cock to Willem van Broeckhuysen in the late 14th century, ownership changed hands. Subsequent generations of the Broeckhuysen family inhabited the castle until it passed to the Arkel family in 1494 through the marriage of Walraven van Broeckhuysen to Otto van Arkel. An event occurred in 1574 when Louis, Count of Nassau, destroyed the castle because the then-resident, Katharina von Geldern, refused to surrender and sympathized with the Spanish. The damage meant the castle never fully recovered. After further changes of ownership, including to the Vijgh and van Aylva families, Waardenburg came into the possession of the van Pallandt family in 1800 through marriage, who owned it until 1971. Today, the castle is managed by the Het Geldersch Landschap/Vrienden der Geldersche Kasteelen association.

Kasteel Waardenburg is located in Neerijnen - Waardenburg, part of the province of Gelderland in the Oost-Nederland region of the Netherlands. The castle stands at an elevation of approximately 8 meters above sea level.

Visitors can experience Kasteel Waardenburg as a museum. After destructions and reconstructions, the building retains only about half of its original size, with mainly the older structural parts preserved.