Netherlands
Noord-Brabant · Amsterdam, Netherlands · Amsterdam · the Brabant castles
6 places pinned — click any one for its story.
The place
The Netherlands is flat, watery, and astonishingly dense with history — reclaimed from the sea, laced with canals and cycle paths, and home to the Golden-Age art of Rembrandt and Vermeer. Our August 2022 trip paired Amsterdam's canals and museums with a swing through the green castle-country of Noord-Brabant in the south.
Down in Brabant we toured the moated castles — Kasteel Heeswijk, the great Kasteel Helmond, and Maurick near 's-Hertogenbosch — walled medieval towns, and the Bosch country around Den Bosch and Eindhoven.
Places I visited
History & facts for each spot — with a “then & now” archival photo where one exists. Every one has its own page; open it for the full write-up and all the photos.
The Dutch capital of concentric canals (a UNESCO site), gabled merchant houses, the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh, and the Anne Frank House — the great city of the 17th-century Golden Age.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Amsterdam photochrom2 — Wikimedia Commons
A moated medieval castle at Heeswijk-Dinther in Noord-Brabant, first mentioned around 1080 and expanded over the centuries — where a Dutch army once camped in 1672 to defend against the French. Beautifully restored, full of period rooms and collections.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Binnenplaats van Kasteel Heeswijk, RP-F-00-5945 — Wikimedia Commons
The largest moated castle in the Netherlands, in the town of Helmond — a square 14th-century brick fortress with corner towers around a courtyard, now the town museum.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: NIMH - 2011 - 0830 - Aerial photograph of Helmond, The Netherlands - 1920 - 1940 — Wikimedia Commons
A moated castle in Vught, just south of 's-Hertogenbosch, its origins in the 14th century — set in wooded grounds by the river.
Full history & photos →Archival photo: Overzicht voorgevel kasteel - Vught - 20320034 - RCE — Wikimedia Commons
The historic capital of Noord-Brabant — a medieval walled city of canals, the great St. John's Cathedral (the finest Gothic church in the Netherlands), and the birthplace of the painter Hieronymus Bosch.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Den Bosch 's Hertogenbosch Nederland, SFA006012061 — Wikimedia Commons
The Brabant tech city that grew up around Philips — design, the Van Abbemuseum of modern art, and a lively centre.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: RAF Mosquito Philipps Eindhoven NAN15Sep43 — Wikimedia Commons