Soelen Castle

The house Soelen is located in a park with tall trees, close to the village of Zoelen, northwest of the church. The castle is situated on a small, round island, which is connected to the forecourt on the north side by a wooden bridge. The grounds within the moat and the castle are not open to the public, but those who walk around it will still get a good impression of the building.

As early as 1263, when Wageningen was granted city rights, a certain Otto van Soelen appears, who at his death leaves a minor daughter, for whom Arndt van Arkel was granted the house of Soelen by the Count of Guelders in 1298. Arndt's grandson, also named Arndt, appeared in 1349 as lord of Soelen and Avezaath. Both in Zoelen and in Avezaath, the gentlemen must have owned a house. Between 1290-1296 these houses were occupied by the followers of the Count of Flanders. In 1355 they were destroyed by Duke Edward.

After the reconstruction, Arnold van Soelen came into conflict with Edward, Duke of Guelders, but he and his sons, Jan and Otto, had to submit to the duke's authority on 13 April 1362. Among other things, he had to allow the latter to determine that the house Soelen could be demolished on demand, whereby he would not even be allowed to dispose of the stones that would be released during the demolition. It is not impossible that at the time of Arndt van Arkel's death the property was divided into Avezaath, with the part in which the Aldenhaag was located and the part in which the house Soelen is located.

The former was the largest and most considerable. Walraven van Benthem somehow came into possession of the part in which the house Soelen was located.

After the Van Benthem family, the Van Rossum family came into possession of the property. After Soelen was elevated to a seigneury in 1506, it came into the possession of Heilwich van Rossum, married to Dirck Vijgh, in 1569.

In 1572 this Dirck was granted the Aldenhaag, so that Soelen and Aldenhaag came into one hand and remained so. This Dirck was in the news in 1574 in a very striking way. In April 1574, rumours had been received by the Spanish governor of Tiel about two enemy persons who were said to be at the castle of Soelen.

To verify this message, the governor sent a sergeant, corporal and 50 soldiers to Dirck Vijgh, with the request to hand over the persons if they were indeed at the castle. However, they did not get any further than the courtyard. Vijgh refused to cooperate with the investigation. As luck would have it, a day later Franco de Valdes and his troops passed between Tiel and Zoelen with the intention of attacking the enemy between Hellert and Varik.

'Didrick Viigh, ende Claes van Gendt, synen zwaeger, gemeynt, dat sy quaemen om 't huys van Soelen ende om hem het zel aff te te ge, so hath he uyt fearen siin goet met alder diligentie ende neersticheit gevluchten naer Bueren toe ende hath selver het vier stabbing in het huys bove en beneden ende hevet alsoe tsaemen verburnt met een groot deel gedeurssen coren, that laughs at the house, belongs to him himself'.

In the same year, another conflict caused Dirck Vijgh even more problems. Dionys van der Wesenhagen was ordered by the Gelderland government to transfer possession of the house and the manor to Reinier van Gelre, who would own it in the name of his wife. To achieve this, Van der Wesenhagen went to Soelen Castle on 27 July (1574). He made a report of his findings;

"When I got there, I closed the prince's house house; One of the soldiers was ordered to crawl in under the gate and open the gate. Going in and going through the gate, I found nothing else above that room but pieces of a carriage and ash combs into camp-councils and electric stumps of lizards. Going into the courtyard, you have found three piles of straw, an old chariot, several chariot wheels, a plough, and pieces of a plough. Thereupon I crossed the first bridge and found that the barn, stable and what had stood there had been burned. Thereupon, going over the other bridge to the principal house, I found the door of the house closed, which I caused to be opened; I entered to find that the whole house had been burned, so that only the walls stood, and I put Reinier van Gelre, as husband and mother of Margarete van Voorst, draught of the house and the lordship of Zoelen, in the presence of some vassals and of the soldiers, in possession of the house and lordship.

On 6 May 1577, Dirck Vijgh violently regained possession of his castle. The court documents show that Vijgh was already living at his house before this 6 May. This means that the house was already (partially) habitable, i.e. restored. Due to the death of Karel Vijgh in 1682, the Zoelen branch of the family became extinct and the seigneury passed to Karel Pieck via the Van Renesse family in 1702. On 22 June 1775 the seigneury was bought by AertJohan Verstolk, alderman of Rotterdam. At that time, the transported was described as follows:

'The ancient, noble castle and daily lordship of Zoelen with Aldenhaag, in the province of Gelderland under the ampt Nederbetuwe half an hour's walk from the city of Tiel, situated in double cingels and visryke gragten, corresponding to the river Linge; requisition stables, carriage, wagon, orangery and gardener's house; furthermore with all the associated regalien van steene windkoommoolen with the pumping station, swan drifts...' etc.

The last owner of Soelen from the Verstolk family was Johan Gijsbert Verstolk, who represented our country in important discussions at the international level. Thus, in May 1815, he was instructed by King William I, in execution of the Congress of Vienna, to negotiate with the representative of the King of Prussia concerning the new border arrangement between the two countries and the taking possession of those districts, cities, etc., which were assigned to the Netherlands by the Congress of Vienna.

On 30 December 1823, Johan Gijsbert Verstolk was ennobled by King William I, with the title of baron. In the months of July of the year 1833, Baron Verstolk was instructed, together with Mr. S. Dedel, to negotiate a treaty to settle the conditions of separation between Holland and Belgium. These activities led to Verstolk being appointed Minister of the Interior in 1839. In 1841 he asked for and received an honorable discharge from this position and was appointed Minister of State. As Minister of the Interior, he received the appreciation of many other heads of state and governments.

After the death of this Johan Gijsbert, Baron van Verstolk van Soelen, the house passed to the Volcker family by inheritance. The house is built on a round island and still has its old canal system, although it is not impossible that the canal used to run through the south-west side of the house, so that there were two courtyards. We must imagine it as follows: passing through the present gate, we would have found a bridge with another gate on the right, through which the second courtyard is reached.

Soelen has a rectangular floor plan of over 17 X 18.30m. The building body is built in 1.50 rn heavy wallwork of large-format demolition stone. Due to the heavy interior wallwork, which divides the rectangular space into one large and four spaces grouped along the front and left sides, the castle shows a late medieval character.

The narrow extensions on the side wings are of a later date. The western extension contains the stairwell.

Source: Kasteelsoelen.nl

routeburo