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Kasteel Doorwerth - pt. 1 - the castle and the old tree

The day after seeing Disturbed we did not lazily recuperate but drove to a castle that is not very far from Kik’s place: Kasteel Doorwerth.

Dating back to the 13th century (and originally named Kasteel Dorenweerd until around 1800) the castle has been burned and bombed (ahem…) to pieces a few times and has been through the hands of various owners, including German ones through the 17th and 18 century.

These days you can come and gape at the castle and the surrounding landscape, visit a museum situated inside or eat at a restaurant there.
We settled for gaping and snapping photos.

turrets
turrets, as seen over outer wall

court
a view from the inside court

from behind
view from behind

castle gardens
the castle gardens

gate to nowhere
gate to nowhere

Growing inside the the court is a somewhat tattered (*cough, cough*) black locust tree, or false acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia), which is said to be the oldest one in the Netherlands.
Considering that it was apparently planted in the first half of the 17th century, only shortly after the North American tree was introduced to Europe by the Frenchman J. Robin in 1601, this sounds very likely indeed.

close-up 1 Robinia pseudoacacia
close-up 1

close-up 2 Robinia pseudoacacia
close-up 2

close-up 3 Robinia pseudoacacia
close-up 3

Robinia pseudoacacia
false acacia in all its splendor

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 12:22 pm and is filed under travels, photos, nature, history. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Kasteel Doorwerth - pt. 1 - the castle and the old tree”

  1. Lynnette in Minnesota Says:
    August 9th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    Beautiful pictures, Mel. :) That tree kind of reminds me of a Banyan tree I saw in Hawaii. It had a spreading, gnarled look to it, too.

  2. Melantrys Says:
    August 9th, 2009 at 10:00 pm

    :blush:

    Well, if you’re over 350 I suppose you’re allowed some amount of gnarliness. :)

    As for the tattered look….. *coughs* *imagines Mr Fawlty saying a classic sentence*

  3. Lynnette in Minnesota Says:
    August 11th, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    We should all look so good at 350. :smug:

    :lol:

  4. David Says:
    August 11th, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    Interesting castle. The big turret reminds me of a jousting lance.

    I wonder where the gate to nowhere went when it still went somewhere? ;)

    I love big old trees! I have seen black locust trees before, but they were quite young compared to this one. This is a beautiful old tree, and I am glad it is well protected. :)

  5. Melantrys Says:
    August 13th, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    @ Lynnette:

    We should all look so good at 350. :smug:

    …. and not to mention the war…

    @ David: We didn’t go and investigate the gate. :P

    Well, if you have such an old tree, you kinda like to make it your badge.

    The city I was born in has this old tree, and by now it consists more of repairs than actual tree…..

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