Loon op Zand Castle, is a castle in Loon op Zand, in the Dutch province of North Brabant. The current building looks like a manor, but is actually the keep of a medieval castle.
The Castle
The current castle
Nowadays Loon op Zand Castle is formed by a main building and a courtyard flanked by two auxiliary buildings. The main building primarily consists of remains of the former keep. The courtyard is north of main building, and is not a successor to the medieval outer bailey, which was south east of the main building. The foundations of this outer bailey might still be present underground.
The main building seems a regular rectangle, but was actually built in two phases. This is shown on the basement level, where the north façade east of the bridge is 20 cm backwards. The windows on the basement level date from the 1663 reconstruction. Those on the ground and first floor date from the 1776-1777 reconstruction. The basement still contains walls of about 2 m thick. The roof dates from 1777, with re-use of parts of the 1663 roof.
The estate is now about 4 hectares and has an English garden, a French garden, a lawn and a forest garden.
The medieval castle
The first brick castle was a square tower of 12.7 by 11.44 m, with a maximum wall thickness of 2.10 m. The size of the visible bricks of this part is in line with the date of 1383–1387, which historians suppose. After the conflict with Joanna, Duchess of Brabant a new section of 12.50 of 5.82 m was added on the east side, probably shortly after 1400. The two sandstone capitals on the courtyard were probably used on the ground floor after this extension. In 1610 a description of the keep was made by a notary, giving a good impression of the tower / keep before 1663.
The old keep soon grew into a large castle with an outer bailey with other buildings on it. In the northeast corner of the current castle there are traces of an opening in the eastern wall. Before 1663 it led to a covered bridge which spanned the moat with two arcs. The outer bailey came in two parts. The covered bridge connected the keep to a small outer bailey with buildings on the south and west side, possibly also on the other sides. From there another bridge led to a much larger outer bailey, which of course had a moat, but might not have been walled. The large outer bailey was closed by a free standing gate building with the year 1536. This might point to the year that the outer bailey and the buildings on it were rebuilt or restored. The renaissance architecture on the Croes etching points to this.
The 1663 'apartment complex'
In the 1660s Thomas of Immerseel started a major reconstruction of the castle. A brewery was built in 1662. In 1663 the keep was drastically renovated and changed. The north wall above the basement was broken down and rebuilt. On the inside of the other walls much brick was removed to get more space. Also, the keep was heightened with an extra floor, and got a new roof. The covered bridge was changed to a wider, impressive staircase building of the same height as the other buildings on the outer bailey. One of the arcs of the bridge building was walled up to make place for a stair to the basement. The stairs of the bridge building now gave comfortable access to the floors of the keep.
This reconstruction also changed the character of the castle. The defensible building became a residential building. The levels of the keep became apartments for guests. The 2009 research by Hermans and Orsel, focused on this reconstruction. It proved that the Causé etching indeed gives a very exact image of the castle after this reconstruction. It also proved that contrary to what was thought before, not only the basement of the current building was medieval, but that most of it is.
The 1777 manor
In 1776-1777 another major reconstruction was ordered by Louis of Salm-Salm. The keep was lowered by one floor, and got a roof which was less steep. On the inside the walls were made thinner. Windows were added and enlarged, and placed at regular intervals. The entrance was moved to the center of the north side. The outer-bailey was destroyed and replaced by a courtyard on the north side with two auxiliary buildings. A house for carriages () on the east side, and on the west side the so-called . It all gave the building the regular appearance of a contemporary manor.
