Binckhorst Castle

About

Binckhorst Castle is a 16th and 17th century manor built on top of a demolished medieval castle.

Binckhorst Castle is located in The Hague city quarter of the same name. It used to be part of the now former Voorburg municipality till 1907. The road called Binckhorstlaan might be the successor of a Roman road connected to Forum Hadriani.

In 1344 the canal 'Haagse Trekvliet' was dug from The Hague city moats to the Vliet, which runs between Leiden and Delft. The castle thus became very important for the economy of The Hague, because it could stop traffic on the canal.

The current castle was built on top of a medieval castle. It is actually a manor which was restored in the 1930s. This restoration was necessary because of problems with the foundation. It involved the creation of a new foundation, and rebuilding most of the walls. It makes that most of the current Binckhorst Castle is a reconstruction.

In 1936 and 1937 archaeological excavations took place at the site, probably in relation to making new foundations for the castle. It revealed a medieval floor plan that was somewhat over twice the size of the current castle. Its size, defensive capability, and irregular square form suggest a castle that had organically grown before square castles with protruding towers, like Muiden Castle became the norm in about 1285.

The current manor still stands on a low hill surrounded by a moat. The round form seems typical for older castles. In a 1619 overview of Jacob II's accounts there is a reference to paying a mason for repairing the hill on which the house stood.

Current knowledge about Binckhorst Castle still heavily relies on the work that Jaap Renaud did in the 1930s. When he investigated the building at that time, his first conclusion was that there was nothing medieval about the building as it stood. For Binckhorst to be a medieval building, the format of its bricks was too small, and the walls were too thin.

Renaud investigated a map of the end of the Siege of Leiden. It depicts Binckhorst Castle as a simple construction consisting of a small house and a stair tower. He concluded this was not a depiction of the medieval situation, which would be proven correct in subsequent excavations, but the predecessor of the core of the current building. He also consulted a 1611 map by Floris Balthasar. This depicted the long façade of the house, and the stair tower both facing the Trekvliet as they do today.

The core of the 1930s building consists of a stair tower (I) and a small house (II). The tower could only be accessed from inside the house. The house had a vaulted basement which reached to about 90 cm above the current ground level. It could be accessed by a stair from the outside, found by the 1930s investigation.

Renaud found that the outside of building I and II facing building III had been carefully finished, as is proper for an outside wall. The same applied to the wall between II and V. The same was noticed on a part of the wall between II and IV. In short, both pictures which Renaud qualified as different buildings, were inline with the 1930s investigation.

It was found that the core of the building as it stood in the 1930s had been constructed without proper means. Neither the core building nor the connected tower had proper foundations. The simple foundations consisted of some rows of re-used kloostermoppen (medieval brick), upon which the new two-stone thick walls were erected. As a consequence, the tower was off 60 cm by the 1930s. The red brick used in this construction measured 19-20 * 9-9.5 * 4.5 cm.

On the front side (with the tower), the foundations of the most southern point are profound, but about 1 m from there, the foundation suddenly ended, and the walls were built almost on ground level. Here the ground contains very much debris. Obviously this ground was deemed solid enough to build without foundations.

In other places the foundations were found to be 90 cm deep, sometimes even deeper. The foundations of the north corner of part III were remarkable. On superficial inspection, these seemed to consist of a shallow layer of reused kloostermoppen (medieval brick). Excavation then revealed a piece of masonry consisting of all kinds of pieces and chunks. Beneath it were four layers of big yellow kloostermoppen. This seemed a part of the medieval castle, but in turn these layers were on top of 9 layers of the red brick of the 16th century wall. Beneath this was medieval masonry. In total this foundation was two meters deep.

In the back of room V, the wall between III and V at the north corner of III had a vertical seam that reached till the foundations. In this corner of III these were again found to consist of a row of medieval kloostermoppen. The wall between III and IV had the same foundation, and was also made of red brick, this time of 19-20 * 9-10 * 4.5 cm. It did not form part of the wall of II, and the oldest part reached only till about 1.60 m above the floor.

The 1614 picture by J. Londerseel is a bit off, but depicts the situation that part V has not yet been built, and that II and III had separate roofs A sundial probably dated to 1616, and some archives allowed to date the construction of part IV to that year. This is inline with the type of windows in the southeastern wing. The brick in part IV was red with yellow veins, or sometimes vice versa., size 18 * 9 * 4 cm. The rear wall of part IV was renovated later, and also showed a small brick of 16 * 7 * 3.5 cm.

Part V was constructed soon after part IV. Its walls consisted of a catalogue of different brick types. The cellar was constructed with the same brick as in IV. Above that, many types were used. Any dating based on the brick was therefore almost impossible with regard to this part of the building. A drawing by Roelant Roghman shows a building with three stepped gables, and part V still being lower.

In 1690 the ownership of Binckhorst changed. The new owner removed the stepped gables and probably brought II and V under one roof. The new situation is depicted on a 1725 drawing. In 1727 Johan Huyman bought the castle. Windows were moved and enlarged, and the front door was placed in a new larger frame together with windows. The windows in V and the tower were still later changes, probably by Marens de Jong in the late 19th century.

was built on top of a medieval castle. It is actually a manor which was restored in the 1930s. This restoration was necessary because of problems with the foundation. It involved the creation of a new foundation, and rebuilding most of the walls. It makes that most of the current Binckhorst Castle is a reconstruction.

In 1936 and 1937 archaeological excavations took place at the site, probably in relation to making new foundations for the castle. It revealed a medieval floor plan that was somewhat over twice the size of the current castle. Its size, defensive capability, and irregular square form suggest a castle that had organically grown before square castles with protruding towers, like Muiden Castle became the norm in about 1285.

The current manor still stands on a low hill surrounded by a moat. The round form seems typical for older castles. In a 1619 overview of Jacob II's accounts there is a reference to paying a mason for repairing the hill on which the house stood.