Cranendonck Castle

Cranendonck Castle is a former castle which was situated next to the village of Soerendonk, in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands.

Cranendonck Castle was probably built around 1250 by Engelbert van Horne. His son, Willem I, was the first to call himself 'of Cranendonck'. The Cranendonck family were lords of Eindhoven. Through sales and inheritances, possession of the castle went through the hands of several noble families.

By 1551 it was owned by Anna van Egmont, Countess of Buren and Leerdam. So when she married William I, Prince of Orange, that year, it went to the House of Orange-Nassau. Its owners rarely or never inhabited the castle and it was taken care of by a steward.

In 1673, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War, Cranendonck Castle was destroyed by French troops. It was left as a ruin. The Oranges maintained ownership until the French Revolution. In 1820 its remains were sold to a commoner and all of the castle that had remained above ground was removed.

In 1996 the former castle site was archaeologically excavated and its foundations were recorded. In 2008 its contours were made visible above ground in an artificial way. On the site of a former farm, belonging to the castle, now stands a small former town hall that now bears the name of Cranendonck Castle.

At present nothing remains of Cranendonck Castle.

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