Our castle is full of secrets. From hidden rooms, secret staircases to mystical vaults. And towers, of course, like the Iron Tower, which secretly isn't even that old.
IRON TOWER
The Iron Tower is the striking, freestanding tower at the corner of the castle. Dukes, statues of saints, old iron and a staring cow all play a role there. Although older than most houses, at 150 years old the tower is still quite young. Will you take a look with us?
The foundation stone of the Iron Tower was laid in 1871 by squire Alberic. The bricks and other building materials were brought in mainly by cargo ships via the nearby South Willems Canal. The canal that celebrates its 200th anniversary this year was as tight then as it is today.
It would take until 1877 to complete construction of the tower.
So the Iron Tower is not made of iron. It owes its name to the vast collection of ironwork it houses. After all, this was the great passion of squire Alberic. In this, the squire was expertly assisted by castle blacksmith Hein van Balkom, who had his forge in the gatehouse. The squire's collection consisted of ironwork and statues of saints. One can think of hinges, grates, fencing, weather vanes, fireplace fences, door knockers, lanterns. As for statues, they include music-making angels, Madonna (the saint, not the singer!), a kneeling knight, a Tyrolean lady in a boat....
Not much of the collection remains. Today, not one rusty nail in the tower is a reminder of the enormous collection of "old iron. However, the tower itself is worth visiting. Come and marvel at the neo-Gothic architecture. From the 'Window of Bloemendaal' an Edam cow looks down on you and at the top of the tower you can see the bluestone floor with copper effigies of six Brabant dukes and duchesses. It's quite a climb up the narrow staircase to the tip of the tower!
STAIRS IN THE KITCHEN
The castle's kitchen was last used more than 100 years ago. Little has changed since then. No dishwasher and shiny kitchen appliances here. In fact, the old pump was the only water supply until recently. Two taps can be seen, one for drinking water and the other for cleaning. Water was pumped from the moat through a hand pump in the basement and pumped through lead pipes to the reservoir in the Water Tower, from where it was piped along the outside wall to the kitchen pump.
At the back of the kitchen is a small staircase with a turntable at the top for passing meals, such as to squire Louis who was on the Entresol, the mezzanine above the kitchen. To signal to him that the food was coming, the bell at the side of the steps was pulled. There are several bells, connected to various rooms in the castle. Thus, the staff present knew exactly where they were needed.
In the middle of the kitchen - in the ceiling - is the flue with a metal plate at the end. On this are the cast-iron stoves, filled with white sand. The warm air from the fire in the kitchen rose, heated the sand in the stoves and thus the rooms. The wall tiles are so-called "whites" from the 17th century. The kitchen floor is authentic, of turned fired clay tiles from the 17th century. They were made with two different types of clay to create a "marble" effect.
The game stand served for hanging the necessary meat. In work areas, such as in this kitchen, oxblood was used to add color to paint for the woodwork. This was obtained by mixing ox blood with paint. They did this not only for the color, but also for another reason: oak had to be paid extra tax, and once painted, the type of wood used could not be distinguished. Mixing it with blood also produced more paint that had a nice color, and also lasted longer.
TINKAMER
The Tin Room was the governor's bedroom. This room was named for the amount of pewter objects displayed here. What is left is on the edges. Much tin was sold at auctions and much tin was lost to tin plague, which can occur when the temperature drops below 13 degrees. In the disaster year of 1672, the French Sun King, Louis XIV stayed in this room. He took up residence in Castle Heeswijk to join England in fighting Holland, Sweden and a few princes from Germany from here. When the Sun King found that victory was not forthcoming, he returned to France without an army - but not after leaving the castle devastated.
Of particular note in this room are the paneling panels. These ebony panels with inlaid meander profiles are a design by architect Snickers. They are all different except for two. If you look closely at the panels, you can discern a door there and maybe even the door handle. This secret door gives access to a "convenience," or medieval toilet. At the time, of course, it was not chic to show where you make toilet as a noble.
