Guntherstein

Around 1300 the castle was built by a member of the Utrecht family Van Lichtenbergh. This 'Van Lichtenbergh' had the name Gutter or Gunter.

Castle Gunterstein was recognized as a knight's court town in 1539 and was on loan to the Count of Holland.Previously it was a fief of Amstel or Woerden. After the murder of Floris V, it belonged to the forfeited goods, which then became borrows from Holland, and always have remained, despite the fact that Gunterstein was in the Sticht.
The oldest house Gunterstein was founded in the 13th or 14th century by one Gunter, to whom the house owes its name. The genus Gunter or Gunther originated from that of Lichtenberg. Through the Gunter family it passed into the hands of the Van Everdingen family. Around 1396 the castle came into the possession of Elsabe van Loenersloot, who leased it to Jan van Nijenrode from 1396 to 1398. In 1415 Elzabe van Loenersloot obtained Guntersteyn into a free house of his own from Count William of Holland. Elsabe was entitled to Loenersloot Castle after her father's death, but the bishop did not grant her it until 1408, as she was not happy with her marriage to Willem van IJsendoorn, and did not like to see this powerful Gelderman sitting on Loenersloot. In 1417, the couple sold Guntersteyn to Hugo de Bloot, who dedicated it to Jacoba of Bavaria and received it back on loan.

Hugo de Bloot fled to Delft as Hoek's nobleman in 1425, and handed over Guntersteyn to his granddaughter Ermgard van Valckendaal. She married Daniel van Everdingen, and his son Daniel was bequeathed to Guntersteyn in 1459. In 1500 the castle came into the possession of Hendrik van Nijenrode via Jaspar van Everdingen. In 1508 the castle was taken by Burgundian soldiers, but was evacuated at the intercession of the bishop.
In 1511 the castle was razed to the ground by the citizens of Utrecht and the Geldersen. Hendrik van Nijenrode's son Gijsbert had the castle rebuilt. Since his sons died unmarried and there were therefore no descendants, the house passed to Cornelia van Waveren, Gijsbert's widow. She left Gunthersteyn to her daughter Margriet, who married Johan Monix in 1577. Their daughter Christina inherited the house in 1597, and her son Charles de Brouxelles inherited the house on her death in 1603. In 1611 it was sold to Grand Pensionary Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, whose property was forfeited on the scaffold after his death. His sister Odilia had to leave the castle. The States of Utrecht leased the castle in 1620 to Leenaert Sweerz, merchant from Amsterdam. In 1625 the confiscation was reversed, so that the van Oldenbarnevelt family regained its right of inheritance. Deliana van Brederode is then given the right credit. She was married to Theophilus van Cats, and in 1649 the house passed to their daughter Anna, who married Peter van Wassenaer. In 1653 they dedicated Guntersteyn to Agnes van Bijler, the widow of jonker Ploos van Amstel. Engelbert Ploos van Amstel acquired the castle in 1659. In 1680 the house was dedicated to Magdalena Poulle, the widow of Adriaan Daem. In 1672 the castle was blown up by the French.

Magdalena Poulle buys the remains and has the castle rebuilt in the form it looks like today. By will, the house passed in 1699 to her brother Benjamin, who bequeathed it to their cousin Maria de Bordes, which happened in 1711. Maria de Bordes married Ferdinand van Collen, Lord of Tienhoven and Guntersteyn, in 1680. The last of the Van Collens, Johanna, married Daniel Willink in 1844, who was authorized to add the name Van Collen to his own in 1845. Through inheritance, the castle passed into the hands of the lord Louis Henri Quarles of Ufford. After his death in 1950, the castle was transferred to the Ridderhofstad Gunterstein Foundation in 1952.

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