Visiting Majestic Castle Muiderslot in The Netherlands
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- The Netherlands Beyond Amsterdam: Majestic Castle Muiderslot
This week, we are sharing our trip to Castle (Kasteel) Muiderslot in Muiden, about 15 km southeast of Amsterdam. Castle Muiderslot is one of the best-known castles in The Netherlands. It was said to have been built around 1280 and has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and now is restored to what it may have looked like in the 17th century. It's currently a national museum, and is part of the Museumkaart! Make sure Muiderslot is on your list whether you're looking for a day trip from Amsterdam, into Dutch history, or just love castles. You won't want to miss it!
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We're Tracey and Travis, an American couple who just moved with our Miniature Husky, Tabasco, from our home in Houston, Texas to the city of Leiden, The Netherlands. Our goal is to be interesting people, and you'll see that reflected in our channel. We appreciate all of your support on this crazy awesome journey!
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#netherlandsbeyondamsterdam
#castle
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#hiddengemsinthenetherlands
#castletour
#castle4k
#museumkaart
#mustseemuseums
#museum4k
#castlegrounds
#amsterdam
#Muiderslot
00:00 Introduction
00:49 Castle grounds tour
01:30 First Impressions
01:52 Dungeon and Knight's Route
03:47 Knight's RouteReview
04:46 Tour Route
05:06 Our Castle Jobs
05:36 Old Castle Admin
05:51 Castle History
07:24 Castle Gardens
09:19 Amphitheater
09:51 Water Defense
11:01 Prune Garden
11:49 Wrap up
Great video. The editing is nicely done. Looks very professional. Next time i hope to see King Tabasco 🐶👑 ❤️❤️❤️
He'll be making an appearance soon, absolutely. Thank you so much for watching!
The last time I was there… maybe 8 years ago- they had an exhibition about hawking- hunting with hawks- it was awesome!
Legends go that in the 17th century the owner poet P.C. Hooft would invite his friends, famous Dutch writers and musicians, thus creating the illustrous Muider Kring (Muider Circle) of which even Joost van den Vondel (the actual Dutch equivalent of Shakespeare, not Hooft) is said to have been a member. In reality he only visited a few times, but still some pretty influencial people used to meet there.
Nice trip to castle Muiderslot. Next historic castle at the museumcard could be Slot Loevestein, which can be visites by boat from the old town Gorinchem 😊
Oh for sure! It's on our list!
@@TAndTGoDutch And like any other castle in the Netherlands it has its history. Originally built to control the place where rivers Maas and Waal joined, and flew together towards the sea. In the time that Dordrecht was the major city in Holland and all trade to the south and east, and to Germany and Belgium had to pass this point.
Whoever controlled Loevestein, controlled trade, taxes, and power.
When Utrecht created a barrier in the Rhine to control the amount of water towards the city (too much sometimes) they made a leak river (Lek) where the surplus would go. Thus creating another route to Germany. And this castle lost a little bit of its power, tolls and taxes.
When trade shifted towards Amsterdam and Haarlem, Loevestein got a more military function, where Muiderslot controlled the most northern point of the waterline defense, this one controlled the most southern point.
So every part of its history can be seen, it's not a Disney 'frozen in time' display, but a real castle with eight centuries of change, function, and all modifications that were needed to fulfill its purpose.
Now Rotterdam has taken over from Amsterdam, the river Waal has more ships than ever before, on their way to Germany, Swiss and eastern Europe through the Rhine Danube canal. So there is a lot to see on Loevestein.
You should also visit Bourtange al little vesting village, very nice to visit
Beautiful! Go visit Paleis Het Loo, were our royals lived! Also very Beautiful and the rooms are fully decorated. And the gardens are very large
Another one might be Soestdijk, Bernhard en Juliana.
Bedankt, Susanne! We appreciate the suggestion!
@@TAndTGoDutch Paleis het Loo is great, especially in spring and summer when the gardens are at their best.
It's modeled after the French and Austrian imperial palaces in Paris and Vienna (but at a smaller scale).
And parts of it are still in use as a residence for some of the royal family (princess Margriet lives there, not sure if others do as well).
@@jwenting Princess Margriet left the palace when the restoration started and has a new build villa next to it. The palace is a museum now, and only available to government and royalty for special occasions.
The older castle in the forest however is still royal private and used as a hunting, party, house.
Muiderslot castle is amazing. A great day trip from Amsterdam which takes less than an hour. And it is in the sweetest little village. 10/10
Great seeing you making good use of the Museumkaart.
Just FYI, we did learn a bit about PC Hooft in school, but most people never read his plays (I know I havn’t), it is not obligatory like Shakespeare (I did have to read one of his plays in school).
nice video enjoying the castle
I expect Travis to wear a Crown the next time.😄😉
Lol, I'll try to find him one for our next castle visit.
@@TAndTGoDutch 🤣👍
Nice video again !
Again a very nice video from you both. Now we have to go to the castle ourselves. Never been there 😔😔😔. Thanks
Water is used in so many ways for defence and relief. Flooding to have gunships liberate a city, flooding to the knees so it's to deep for a marching army and too shallow for ships, mudding just to demoralize the Spaniard in their tents at a siege, there have been skating regiments in the 80-years war. In the siege of Den Bosch, defended by the Spaniards, the Dutch rerouted two rivers and build windmills to pump the area dry for guns and tunneling, using the new route of the rivers for defence of their siege camps, a 40 km circumvalliation, while the besieged city suffered from disease too becaue their sewege didn't flush out anymore.
Some good facts👍🏻 that came as surprise for me as Dutchy
Nice video again. I have been to the Muiderslot a number of times. The first time with my parents when I was little. Later again and the last time with my kids. They loved it too. I think the Muiderslot is really an example of a medieval castle. In the summer you often have outdoor activities at the castle. Very nice for children.
it's no longer a medieval castle. While built on a medieval plan it was thoroughly renovated and repurposed several times through the centuries and is now more of a 17th-18th century country estate in internal layout.
When the defensive nature of the castle was no longer relevant obviously the spaces designed for that were repurposed, and other spaces added that would never have been built for a defensive structure.
Wow well done! I was one of the ones that recommended it, I believe on your castle De Haar video. Love how you included the water defence monument in there!
Yes, you absolutely were! We appreciate the recommendation, it was so worth the trip.
The castle was build by the Count of Holland (like South/North-Holland provinces today - so not to be confused with The Netherlands, which is from much later). Its purpose was to be a 'dwangburcht', a castle from which to subjugate the people in the surrounding, newly acquired lands. Coercion castle seems to be the English term.
Great video you guys are amazing 😍
You’re so kind! Thank you!
HonestIy, the onIy thing I remember about MuidersIot was the sound of a siIver FIorin being dropped on the fIoor as a demonstration to show the difference between that and (at that time) metaI based guiIder, but it sure is nice to visit it again through fresh eyes. Thanks again for the tour. Tot de pruimentijd (prowmentide)🌹
Bedankt, Linda! So happy you enjoyed!
I would recommend visiting the Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem. It has been voted the best museum in the Netherlands and it is also free with the museumkaart. You can easily spend half a day there. It is best on a sunny day in spring or summer as it is also a beautiful park. At the same day you could also visit one of the castles near by like kasteel Doorwerth. Next to the Openluchtmuseum is also Burgers Zoo which is a beautiful zoo. It also has a tropical greenhouse and an underwater aquarium.
Thank you for the suggestions, we’ll be adding to our list!
Yeah, a comparitave linguist told me once that the "ui" sound is unique in Dutch. Nowhere else to be found in the world. Het Muiderslot was originally intended to defend against the bishop of Utrecht, to deny him a harbor. That was the strategic objective of that castle. And indeed, the province of Utrecht still has no harbor to speak of. You will see that the border of the provinces of Utrecht and North Holland are still a bit weird in this region. That is partly due to "het Muiderslot". The castle was never in private hands. It has always been state property (first of the County of Holland, and then the Netherlands). Count Floris V was held there after a obduction by his enemies. As the farmers tried to free the very popular Floris, the obductors panicked and fled, taking Floris with them and killing him a few miles from the castle.
Thank you so much for the additional context, we appreciate you watching!
Hey, hey. Very interesting video as always!
Another tip if you're interested in history through architecture; the Nederlands openluchtmuseum is a museum where they relocated old Dutch homes and buildings to when they couldn't stay in the place where they where originally built. you can see actual homes and such from all throughout Dutch history. including windmills, a cheese factory, farms, boatyards, a brewery and more. Not just from the outside. You can actually walk through them. This museum is also included in the museumkaart.
That sounds lovely. Thank you so much for the recommendation!
@@TAndTGoDutch it is good, located in Arnhem (near Burger's Zoo, one of the world's best zoos).
Also interesting is Archeon, more of a living history museum.
Mind that Archeon is closed for the season (but has special winter events, see their website), Openluchtmuseum may be closed as well during the winter months.
"Tot in de pruimentijd" is basically the Dutch version of "I'll see you when I'll see you again", when you or another person are leaving and unsure when (or in some cases even if) you'll see the other person again. It's often jokingly said at work before a (longer) vacation. It's actually very not Dutch in that sense, that it basically goes against the whole "we plan everything weeks in advance using our schedules" thing ;-)
Oh dear Lord, explain 'Komkommertjd'! 😛
@@dutchman7623 Komkommertijd is the time during summer where only planters of cucumbers are busy, and practically all other businesses have a really quiet time. In current society, it's often used by people in the government to describe their summer recess period.
Nearby is the artificial island Pampus which contains a 19th century fortress which was built to defend Amsterdam. It didn’t do much good in May of 1940 when the Germans invaded. You can visit it but it’s best done in summer. The Muiderslot takes a fair bit of walking to get there from the nearby town, it’s best visited by car if you don’t like walking.
When they tested the huge cannon on the island, it said that they had to warn the people in Muiden to open their windows to prevent the glass panes in them to be damaged.
Oh, you visited ‘Het Muiderslot’! Good on you! And someone already said ‘Het Binnenhof’ was also commissioned by Floris V. Het Muiderslot was a very strategically placed fortress. The water you could see from the towers used to be inland sea. The ships would come through a sea straight between the Isle of Texel and the peninsula that is now North-Holland. They would cruise up to where ‘Het Muiderslot’ is and sail up the river Vecht to get to the river Rijn. Of course taxes would have to be paid to sail up the river. There used to be a used chain across the water from the castle to the other side of the river.
Used chain? That should be huge chain. 🤨 auto-correct! 😤😠
@@suzebakker6909 Yes, chains were used to close off rivers. Even Antwerp was once chained up.
And yes, those chains had vast links! They crossed the river from a fort, to an anchored ship to the next, and next until the fort on the other side was reached. A famous chain is the one that closed off the Medway river near London to Chatham where the English fleet was kept safe. In 1667 the Dutch Navy managed to break the chain, set fire to the fleet and take away the English flagship the Royal Charles. The stern of this ship is still on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam as a major war trophy.
Pierre Cuypers also designed kasteel de haar. And built tons of neo gothic churches all over the Netherlands. One of the most interesting Dutch architects ever.
Oh that's right! We had completely forgotten about that!
@@TAndTGoDutch The house and workplace of Pierre Cuypers is a museum in his hometown Roermond, and there are several other buildings there (Teekenschool), as well the Minster/Munster Church that he restored in neo-gothic style
Omg...Jullie weten meer van de Nederlandse geschiedenis dan ik doe...😂😂😂🫣🫣🫣
Yay! I missed you two!😃Hope you're okay and your family business has been dealt with in a positive way.
Small tip; Kasteel Rosendael (near Arnhem) is a good choice as well (for future visits;-). I'll tell you why! This castle has a garden that has been a go to picnic/walks/day out area for families since the 1900s. My mother and grandmother visited as children and the design of the garden is the same as when they were 6 year-old. It has the 'bedriegertjes' which is a feature that sprays unsuspected visitors with water from the tiles you walk on. There's also a bridge which hangs in the water, which is a hoot to use to get to the other side. It's the same design as in the 1800s and the castle even sells postcards of families of those days standing on the exact spots you can still visit. It also has a lot of specific plants, restored orangery, great place to have a luncheon (the area is hilly so beautiful views) and so on and the village it's situated in is very charming as well. Very suited to stay the night in the village (there's a hotel close to the castle) and just mosey on down the old streets and castle gardens when the weather is good. This really has become the people's castle/garden, but the castle still shows the family portraits, furniture etc. of those who owned it before so you'll also get a taste of history, wealth and culture as well.
If you're interested in the waterlines and defensive systems from 400 years ago. There is a little gem near Hilversum that many ppl don't know about. It's 'Het Nederlands Vestigingmuseum' in Naarden. You can walk the same tunnels soldiers used in the olden days and they have many cool tidbits of history hanging around. An example is a collection of photographs of French soldiers who fought under Napoleon! These were made in the late 1800s, so all of these soldiers are very old, but still wear the uniform with pride. Naarden is a town that has a very prominent place in the 80 years war due to: 'the massacre of Naarden'. Interesting, though horrible story to read about.
Have a lovely week!😊
ps: have you seen the 'sinterklaasintocht' on TV yesterday? If you haven't, check it out on 'sinterklaasjournaal'. That website has all the journal episodes (daily), but also the intocht that happened yesterday. Gives you a taste of how important it is to the Dutch identity!
Yes, things are much better now, thank you! Kasteel Rosendael sounds lovely- we'll be adding it to our list. We'll also check out the sinterklaasjournaal, we missed out on the original program.
You have a great week as well! We appreciate you!
Thank you for the wonderful pictures/ video. You seem to have some 5000 likes / followers and many of them appear to be Dutch. I really appreciate how you are bringing Dutch culture to not only Americans, but to Dutch people as well who have never visited places like het Muiderslot (I like how you try and pronounce the /ui/ sound correctly, also how Tracey corrected you a few times on Travis' pronunciation of PC Hooft).
You could use this platform to give a little bit more historical information and background. I could be 'Dutch direct' and say that I feel it's a bit shallow and superficial? Even Wikipedia will give you more. BTW PC Hooft is important for Dutch literature, but the Dutch Shakespeare is Joost van den Vondel. His play, Gijsbrecht van Aemstel, is still performed every New Year's Day in Amsterdam.
When I was in primary school, in History lessons, we had to learn dates and we chanted them. One of them was '1296, Floris fifth murdered'. To this day I have no idea what the historical or political significance was of this event, but I may spend a few minutes today researching this.
Absolutely, I agree with giving more information. We’re still very new at this platform, and are always trying to better ourselves. In some of our more recent videos (Breda, Amersfoort) we’ve tried to do a bit more research. Thank you for your feedback. We do appreciate you watching!
@@TAndTGoDutch Good to find that you not just read feedback, but even respond to it. I don't live in The Netherlands any more, have not lived there for many years but keep in touch with all kinds of things Dutch. I still have my Mum, brother sister, many friends in The Netherlands and I visit regularly.
I've sailed past it a few times by boat. But never been inside. 1 time, we were also there by boat. And it was closed. We have been to Naardenvesting. And Pampus, the island for that. Greetings from Spakenburg, The Netherlands.
Thank you so much for watching!
Hi T&T&T, great video!
The amphitheatre is used for bird shows (owls/buzzards/vultures) in my experience from previous visits.
That actually sounds super neat!
@@TAndTGoDutch Muiderslot was used by the counts of Holland for Falcon hunts.
A falcon would catch small prey for a good meal afterwards. And of course for some noble amusement.
For defense strongholds in The Netherlands from the past centuries, a number of different military designations are available such as: kasteel, burcht, slot of een fort and more.
Castle; a military defense heavily fortified stronghold prepared to withstand a military attack from outside. Very thick walls, 1meter thick or even more, very heavy fortified doors, few or no windows at all on the outer wall and so forth. The absolute predecessor of what we would now call a military bunker.
Palace: a grand, often bombastic luxury residence, can often easily be confused with a castle from a distance, but a palace has no military background and was built solely for status considerations, which by definition is absolutely not suitable as an integrally reinforced defense stronghold. A very good example of an Palace is the French Chateau De Chambord.
This is a beautiful Gothic building with splendor and can easily be confused with a real military fortified castle, but is no more, but especially no less than an Unfortified luxury residence for status sensitive people, which at the first military attack can be shot completely to rubble, because it is made to be beautiful, not to be sturdy and not to withstand and deflect military attacks.
Just so you know that there a structural differences between a Castle an a Palace, and the names they often have, can easily mislead you, thinking you are looking at a Castle while in reality it is no more than a Palace, or a Grange.
One other thing. Did you notice the skies behind you at the end of your video? Typical Dutch skies as depicted by Jacob van Ruisdael in the 17th century. I wish I could show you some famous pictures but alas! But really lovely and I liked your video again so much. It is so neat to see ones own country through the eyes of (dare I say it?) foreigners. I believe you see more of our country then we localo’s do. And I love the way you enjoy it.
Aww, thank you Suze! We are so grateful to have you here!
When I think of a Dutch Shakespeare, I would more think of Joost van den Vondel. P.C.Hoofd is one of our major writers as well though.
Oh, we'll check that out, thank you!
Hi,
the Binnenhof, the seat of the government in The Hague, was also commissioned by count Floris V, as was kasteel (castle) Radboud in Medemblik.
May be you should also try to visit Slot Loevensteijn. That can also boast on having a (world) famous person living there at a certain time.
Oh, we'll for sure be heading to Slot Loevensteijn! Thank you so much for the tips!
De Haar is very beautiful and majestic, but it is basically build as a fairy tale castle by one of the richest families in the world. (Rothschild) (There used to be a ‘real’ castle there before) It was designed by the famous architect Pierre Cuypers who also designed the Rijksmuseum and the Centraal station in Amsterdam.
So the Muiderslot has a true long history, while kasteel ‘de haar’ in its current form has ‘not’ in the same sense. There is a connection however with Cuypers who renovated the Muiderslot (partly in a romantic way, which was later removed again).
(Wrote this comment before you said the things about Cuypers and Muiderslot, but I still think this info adds something)
And they give demonstrations with large birds in that theater in the garden sometimes.
nice video. you referring often to kasteel de Haar, but remember, kasteel de Haar is not a realy old castle, it never functioned as a real castle for defences like this one.
Yes Castles, excellent subject !
One big difference between Kasteel De Haar and Het Muider Slot is that Het Muider Slot really is an ancient defense Castle and was build in the 13th century and so is like almost 1000 years old and Kasteel de Haar is only 130 years old and was build way after the Night period of time and was build just because someone ordered a castle to live in in the relative modern times of about 1900. It still happens every now and then: even now a castle is being build near Almere next to the A6 Freeway. They've started building this castle in the year 2000, but the builder unfortunately went bankrupt in 2002 and so the ruins of the new Castle to be build have been standing there for almost 20 years now. Recently the castle was bought and so hopefully the new builder will get permission to start building the castle and make apartments in there, and build even more houses around the castle in Almere (Flevoland) to make the project profitable. Maybe you should make a story about this castle and maybe you should visit all castles / ruins of castles there are here in The Netherlands. Especially with the stories about these castles....which will provide you and all of us an much more complete picture of the history of the Netherlands you are part of now.
Interesting about the castle near Almere. We'll need to look into that. It's Tracey's goal to visit all the castles in The Netherlands, such a fun way to learn more about Dutch history.
Just FYI: "Muiderslot castle" is a pleonasm. "Slot" means castle, so it's just called "Muiderslot", or "the Muiderslot".
Thanks!
I like your hair colours 🤌🏻👍🏻
Hope to say hello soon when we finally meet again 🙂 There are so many possible trips in my head! Castles, historic fortresses, unique places 🙂 And good food. There is always going to be good food. I promise 🙂
So sorry we had to postpone! Looking forward to seeing you sometime soon!
Nice ! Are you planning to
visit kasteel SLOT LOEVESTEIN ( also a fortress from the middle-ages.
(they served food made from original 15th century recepies, maybe they still do?)
Look up Hugo de Groot.
There's still artifacts among a "kist" (chest)
in the castle itself.
🌹🌠
Oh yes, Slot Loevestein is for sure on our list! Thank you for the information.
Todt in the prahj-men-tide 😉
Dankjewel!
Floris the 5th was born in Leiden.
TOT IN DE PRIUMEN TIJD..♡♡♡♡♡
Did you visit the toilet that extends over the moat? You can spot one (there are several I believe) at 0:55 just left of the tower below the window.
We saw a few of them!
In the summer you can take a boat from Muiden to a fortress- island called 'Pampus', (and back).
The place even has its own Dutch saying: "Voor Pampus liggen". It's a lot to explain so please Google it... ;)
There's also delicious Ice-cream available in the harbour in a little store near the bridge. VERY popular in high season!
Ooh! Thank you for the information. We appreciate you watching!
Technically its Muider Castle...Castle means slot.Or Slot means Castle.
Could u go there without entering the castle ?
We’re not 100% sure, actually. It looks like you can access a very small amount of the property without showing a ticket. The ticket price does include the grounds, castle, and water wall though.
I hoop you guys tried the fries at the snackbar on the parking lot in Muiden. They have the best fries in the Netherlands
Oh, we saw that, but didn't stop! There was quite a line! We'll have to check that out next time we visit.
Regarding both the Rijks- and Station, Cuypers was controversial when he was appointed to build both of them. He was a Catholic designer and that didn't suit the Amsterdammers. More than that, it didn't please the king. He denied visiting it.
So interesting, thank you for the additional context!
From the 17 th century ? ... this castle was built in the middle ages when Marco Polo discovered the American Continent.
Midle evil 😂
Stop with the cheap "pretty cool"....
Geert, slaat nergens op dit!
@@susannehansler7279 Hear, hear!
I agree. Try some other adjectives. I feel a little insulted as a Dutch person, although living in France, that 'incredible', 'awesome', 'awe--inspiring', 'inspirational', 'inspired', 'wonderful', 'majestic', thrilling', 'fantastic', 'unbelievable', even just 'lovely', ''great' or 'sweet' or 'grand' are slapped down with 'cool', 'pretty cool' or 'cute'
Loved your video 😊 Read more on PC Hooft and his friends here. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muiderkring
It’s actually not a group that gathered all together, as the name would suggest, but they all visited PC Hooft at Muiderslot regularly to discuss and work together on projects, like a series of sonnets that belong together. Kudos to my high school teacher that that stuck😜