Slot Spangen

About

Spangen Castle (also known as ter Nesse) was a medieval castle near the village Overschie. It has disappeared completely. The Rotterdam city quarter Spangen was named for the castle.

The last visible remains of Spangen Castle disappeared in the second half of the nineteenth century. A Mr. Looys then made a floor plan from what he saw.

In 1942 Spangen Castle was excavated, because an inland harbor for Rotterdam would be constructed in the area. The excavation was led by Jaap Renaud of the Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg. The idea to investigate Rotterdam's antiquities was promoted by Johan Ringers.

The early fourteenth century tower house was the oldest part of the castle. On the floor plan it is marked with XIVA. The tower house was remarkable for having over 2 meter thick walls on the moat sides, and much thinner ones on the court side. The idea was probably to first defend the court side only with an earth breastwork along its moat, and to extend the stone structure later on.

The court side corner of the tower house had a wide protruding foundation. It was probably the foot of a stair tower, because the inner walls were too thin to contain stairs. On the southwest side of the tower house, a privy (tower) extended into the moat. Its exit was topped by masonry arc. Later the opening was closed by a woven matt of withy, perhaps against rats.

In the second construction phase a stone wall was built around the court, see map XIVB and Oorspr. XIVB. Next to the tower house was the gate. The gate had two openings on the moat side (see map), probably for heavy beams that were part of the draw bridge. In the moat two poles were found, that would have supported the bridge. At 20 m outside the gate, the bridgehead was found, albeit from masonry of the last period that the castle was inhabited.

East of the gate a small stretch of an enceinte started, showing its character by the buttresses that supported a protected walkway. Next was probably a tower on the north tip of this castle, but this could not be proven. From the same time dates a wall on the northeast side. Parts of this wall were later integrated as southwest wall of a new northeast wing. This first wall is not a complete square on the floor plan, because some southeastern parts of this wall were not recovered during the excavations.

The third construction phase (XVB) started by filling the northeast and southeast part of the moat. A new northeast wing was then built where part of the moat had been. On its northwest and northeast side the wing had a new heavy cavity wall, a very rare concept in medieval times. On the southern tip of the new wing was a high stair tower, displayed on many pictures of the (ruined) castle. At the new northern tip of the castle, the foundations were gone, and only foundation piles were present. This allowed to extract some of these piles, which proved to be about 4 m long, and to have rested on a layer of clay.

On the southeast tip of the new wing was an adjoining square well about halfway the new northeast wall. The still existing part was 2 m high, and had a wooden floor. From the well, the wall of the new wing then continued to the southeast as a regular defensive wall without cavity. From the new eastern tip of the castle this wall the ran southeast, until making a 90 degree turn on the southern tip, and running for about three meters to connect to the wall of the second phase.

Building on top of a filled up body of water is unusual, because it's dangerous. Renaud therefore dug a trench under the northeast wing, which indeed confirmed that it stood on top of a former moat. A trench south of the well gave the same result. A shoring had been built about half a meter outside of the foundations in order to give some stability to the filled up area.

The last construction phase (XVIA) added some annexes to the castle. On the northeast side an annex was built that would later cave in so seriously that its wall broke, see photo.

On the southern corner was a construction that Looys saw as a buttresses. Renaud judged it to have been a bastion.

In general, medieval construction used different kinds of stone and brick at different times. This allows researchers to roughly date (parts of) medieval buildings. This was also the case at Spangen Castle. The archaeologist Jaap Renaud was quite fond of describing the different types of brick he found at castles. At Spangen he judged that circumstances were ideal to date parts of the castle after the brick that had been used.

The tower house, or keep was made of red brick of 31 * 15 * 7 cm. The brick used in the second construction phase was generally pale-red, with yellow parts and veins. It measured 26 * 13 * 6 cm, while some bricks were 25 and others 27 cm long.

In the third phase, a pale-red brick of a relatively high hardness was used. It measured about 22 * 10 * 5 cm. The third phase saw some reuse. When the northeastern wing was built, a part of the second phase northwestern wall was broken down. Bricks from this wall were then reused in the foundations of the new extension. The fourth phase used a typical yellow hard brick, which Renaud called IJsselsteen (IJssel brick). It measured 18 * 8.5 * 4 cm.

The last visible remains of Spangen Castle disappeared in the second half of the nineteenth century. A Mr. Looys then made a floor plan from what he saw.

In 1942 Spangen Castle was excavated, because an inland harbor for Rotterdam would be constructed in the area. The excavation was led by Jaap Renaud of the Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg. The idea to investigate Rotterdam's antiquities was promoted by Johan Ringers.

The early fourteenth century tower house was the oldest part of the castle. On the floor plan it is marked with XIVA. The tower house was remarkable for having over 2 meter thick walls on the moat sides, and much thinner ones on the court side. The idea was probably to first defend the court side only with an earth breastwork along its moat, and to extend the stone structure later on.

The court side corner of the tower house had a wide protruding foundation. It was probably the foot of a stair tower, because the inner walls were too thin to contain stairs. On the southwest side of the tower house, a privy (tower) extended into the moat. Its exit was topped by masonry arc. Later the opening was closed by a woven matt of withy, perhaps against rats.

In the second construction phase a stone wall was built around the court, see map XIVB and Oorspr. XIVB. Next to the tower house was the gate. The gate had two openings on the moat side (see map), probably for heavy beams that were part of the draw bridge. In the moat two poles were found, that would have supported the bridge. At 20 m outside the gate, the bridgehead was found, albeit from masonry of the last period that the castle was inhabited.