Court of Batenburg annex Castle Gronsveld

Hof van Batenburg/Hof van Gronsveld

Castle Gronsveld was the third laathof of Gronsveld, the Hof van Gronsveld alias Hof van Batenburg.

Originally, a 13th-century motte-and-bailey castle was supposed to have stood on the site of the current castle, which was the precursor of the rectangular fortress built around 1300 with round corner towers. This fortress was owned by the powerful lords of Gronsveld and served as the seat of their lordship. When Jan II of Gronsveld was murdered in Aachen in 1386, his brother Henric, Lord of Rimburg, inherited his entire estate. Due to the lack of a male heir, the lordship of Gronsveld came into the possession of the Van Bronckhorst family when Diederik van Bronckhorst, lord of Batenburg and Anholt, married the granddaughter of Henric. This Van Bronckhorst family had good relations with Emperor Maximilian I and his son Emperor Charles V. At the emperor's urging, the free lordship was elevated to a barony, allowing Diederik and his descendants to hold the title of baron. Joost van Bronckhorst (born 1545 - Wachtendonk in 1588) could call himself the 1st count of Gronsveld. He was elevated to imperial count by the emperor in 1588, granting Joost a seat in the German Reichstag and allowing him to call himself a prince of the German Empire. Due to these developments, the Bronckhorsts resided almost exclusively in Germany and gradually withdrew more from Gronsveld. Eventually, the castle stood empty and became a refuge for vagrants and robbers. One of the robber bands was formed by a group of Hessian horsemen from the Northern Netherlands. When these bands began plundering the areas between Liège, Maastricht, and Aachen more frequently, an army was sent in 1594 by the prince-bishop of Liège. When the fortress came under heavy cannon fire during the punitive expedition, it signaled the end of the once magnificent fortress. Although the lords of Bronckhorst no longer lived there, they decided to partially restore the castle. The eastern part was rebuilt to its original state for this purpose. This castle remained in the possession of the Van Bronckhorst family until 1719, when the county was inherited by the German family of Törring-Jettenbach. However, in 1801 it was confiscated by the French and then sold to a broker from Wezet. In 1825, it became the property of a Maastricht contractor who largely demolished it and reused the materials elsewhere. The remnants were taken by the Maastrichtenaar A. Gadiot who built his country house on the site. The Gadiots remained owners until 1988, when the castle came into the possession of Amsterdam pharmacist H. Freie, who is still the resident of the castle today.

Eijsden-Margraten