Castle Hoensbroek - 17th and 18th Century portion

Back to the castle....

I felt considerable relief when we entered the later portions of the castle. I should mention that you first enter the modern portion, and then go into the medieval part. You can see that here:

The drawbridge that goes into the castle goes into the modern part first. In this picture, you can see the drawbridge, and to the right is the cylindrical medieval tower.

In the courtyard, there are various items from the daily life of the castle, with the exception of the cannon. ☺

I find it interesting that clothes were hung up on poles instead of on clotheslines, but it makes sense. Clotheslines would involve the mass production of clothespins, and hanging clothes on ropes instead of putting the poles through the clothes' armholes would risk the chance of the clothes flying off in the wind. Although I suppose one could thread the rope through the clothes' armholes.  Still, it wouldn't be as stable as poles.

You see the same thing indoors:

The servant girl you see in this picture is dressed in clothes from the 1660's. I assume the piece of furniture on the left is a clothes press, perhaps something to press the wet from the clothes or sheets. Yet...wouldn't that mess up the wood? Make it warp? It seemed to be a fine piece of furniture, so perhaps it was used when the clothes or sheets were dry. Hmm. It would be interesting to see how it actually works.  It looks similar to a printing press, doesn't it?  From what I understand, the basic design for the printing press came from clothes presses.


From the looks of the cannon, I doubt it dates from any earlier than the mid-1700's. I could be wrong but the barrel's too sophisticated for medieval engineering. I admit I don't know much about artillery, but my gut feeling is that this is certainly not medieval, it is muzzle-loading, and was moved via an attachment to a horse's harness. My feeling is that it's from the 1700's at the earliest. My brother Allen would probably know for sure.

Here's the lovely staircase to the upper floors of the castle:

I love the carpet on the stairs. The Hoensbroek family ancestors line the stairwell all the way to the top. The paintings range from approximately the early 1700's to the late 1800's.












Here are pictures of two different bedrooms.  The bed in the first one dates--I believe--from the 17th century:

The clothes in the last one date from the 1700's, I'd say around the 1770s.

Now here's a lovely scene: It's the castle drawing room, with one of the ladies at the harpsichord. The clothes date from approximately 1760 to 1770. The portrait of the lady, however, is from the mid to late 1600's.







This tapestry was in one of the dining rooms:

It seems to represent an exotic Asian countryside. The bird in it, however, is too fantastical for me to identify. :-D I couldn't help notice it, however, having been trained to notice such things by my mother, the expert tailor. Here is a detail of it--beautiful work:

Oh, and the people of these times grew perhaps a little, but they're still not as tall as people these days. Here is John next to one of the doorways.

John is 6 foot 3 inches, as a comparison; he's standing heels against the wall. You'd have to be shorter than 6 feet to go through these doors without ducking.











We then went into a room that was clearly the castle's version of the Man Cave, i.e., the Game Room. The guns are flintlocks--rifles and muskets.

There were various animals taxidermically displayed (birds as well as mammals) in various poses, but I don't think we took pictures of them. Just as well, as some of them were rather dramatic and alarming, such as a stoat snarling at an attacking falcon.

We went up another flight of stairs, this time to the rafters, where the bell clock was kept. Below  is the clock that regulated the chiming of the bells.

It's an amazing piece of machinery that still works to this day (and yes, we did hear the chiming of the hour, which was very loud).

Most every castle has a family chapel. To the right  is the Hoensbroek family one.

Though both Germany and the Netherlands are considered predominantly Protestant countries (Lutheran, though very few actually go to church on a regular basis), there are pockets of the population that are heavily Roman Catholic. The eastern part of the Netherlands and the western part of Germany seem to be strongly Catholic. The Hoensbroek castle chapel is clearly Catholic, complete with crucifix and holy water at the entrance of the chapel. The place is beautifully decorated...even the ceiling!

We decided we wanted a bite to eat before leaving, and went down to the cellar/restaurant, but unfortunately, they were closed. However, we did get a picture of the interesting interior.

Those implements with the jagged edges were used to adjust the height of pots above the fire, to regulate how much heat each pot received.

I just thought the arched construction was rather nifty. :-D

We left the castle after that, and I have to say I was throughly satisfied by our outing. I hope to go to more castles, in as many countries as I can.