Kasteel Doorwerth

Doorwerth stands on the Rhine floodplain below the Veluwe edge, a moated castle first recorded in 1260, rebuilt in brick from the fourteenth century into a courtyard house with a gatehouse and outer bailey. In September 1944 it was in the middle of the Arnhem fighting and was shelled to near-total destruction; photographs from afterwards show a shell with the vaults gone. It was rebuilt over the following decades using surviving material and pre-war surveys, which took until 1983, and the result is one of the more thorough postwar castle reconstructions in the country. It now holds a museum of hunting and Dutch game management, with the interiors furnished in period. The setting is the good part: the moat, the floodplain meadows and the wooded scarp behind, with the Rhine a few hundred metres away and the Oosterbeek war cemetery nearby.

History

The first castle, probably of wood, is mentioned in 1260 and was then rebuilt in stone as a simple two-storey hall-keep with a moat fed by the Rhine. It was enlarged through the 14th century, given in 1402 by Robert van Dorenweerd to the count of Guelders and returned to him as a fief, and enlarged again in the mid-15th century by Reinald van Homoet (Wikipedia, Doorwerth Castle).

What's there

• A moated courtyard castle - brick, from the fourteenth century, on the floodplain.
• Rebuilt from rubble - destroyed in the 1944 fighting and reconstructed by 1983.
• A hunting museum - Dutch game management and hunting history in the rooms.
• Rhine floodplain setting - meadows, moat and the wooded scarp behind.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Things to know

Almost everything standing is postwar reconstruction. Closed Mondays and reduced in winter. The approach floods in high water. The museum subject is hunting, which not everyone wants.

Nearby

Oosterbeek and the Airborne cemetery are east; Arnhem is beyond.

Key facts