Cranendonck Castle

Cranendonck Castle was a former castle 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 was the lord of Eindhoven. Through sales and inheritances, possession of the castle changed hands among several noble families.

By 1551, it was owned by Anna van Egmont, Countess of Buren and Leerdam. When she married William I, Prince of Orange, that year, the castle became part of the House of Orange-Nassau. Its owners rarely or never inhabited the castle, and it was maintained by a steward.

In 1673, after the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War, French troops destroyed Cranendonck Castle, leaving it in ruins. The Orange family maintained ownership until the French Revolution. In 1820, its remains were sold to a commoner, and all above-ground structures of the castle were removed.

In 1996, the former castle site was archaeologically excavated and its foundations documented. By 2008, its outlines were made visible above ground through artificial means. Today, a small former town hall on the site of a former farm belonging to the castle bears the name Cranendonck Castle.

Currently, nothing remains of Cranendonck Castle.

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