Muiderslot

Muiderslot stands where the Vecht runs into the IJmeer, a compact square of brick with round towers at the corners and a moat around it, which is close to the picture-book idea of a castle and unusual in a country with few of them. The first castle, of 1280, was pulled down by 1300, and the present one was rebuilt on the same spot and plan around 1370-1386. In the seventeenth century it was the home of the poet and historian P C Hooft, and the writers and musicians who gathered around him gave the castle a second life as a literary address. It opened to visitors in the nineteenth century, and the walled kitchen garden and falconry are part of the visit.

History

Count Floris V built a stone castle at the mouth of the Vecht in 1280, when he gained an area that had belonged to the See of Utrecht, to levy tolls on the trade route to Utrecht; in 1296 Gerard van Velsen and other nobles kidnapped him and held him here, and when he tried to escape Gerard killed him on 27 June 1296. The Bishop of Utrecht took the castle in 1297 and it was pulled down by 1300, and around 1370-1386 Albert I, Duke of Bavaria and Count of Holland and Zeeland, rebuilt it on the same spot and plan. The poet and historian P. C. Hooft, bailiff of Gooiland, spent 39 summers here, entertaining Vondel, Huygens, Bredero and Maria Tesselschade Visscher in what became known as the Muiderkring. At the end of the 18th century the castle served as a prison and then fell derelict, in 1825 it was offered for sale for demolition until King William I intervened, and some seventy years later it was restored; it is now a national museum (Wikipedia, Muiden Castle).

What's there

• The castle block - the square brick core with its corner towers and the moat around it.
• The Hooft rooms - interiors furnished to the seventeenth century, when the poet lived here.
• The kitchen garden - the walled plot outside the moat, planted as it would have been.
• The falconry - birds kept and flown in the grounds, with demonstrations in season.

When to go

April to October, when the garden is planted, the falconry flies and the boat to the island fort of Pampus runs from the harbour beside the castle. Weekday mornings are calmest, while school holidays fill the courtyard with family programming. Winter opening is limited to weekends and holiday periods, with the garden bare.

Things to know

It is small, and a thorough visit is over in two hours. The interiors are furnished reconstructions rather than surviving rooms, and the route through them can feel scripted. In summer the castle leans heavily on knights and falcons entertainment for children, which is fine if that is what you wanted and grating if it is not.

Nearby

Muiden harbour and the boat to Pampus, with Amsterdam half an hour west.

Key facts