The Castle of Tilburg: A medieval castle in an industrial city

Unlike cities like Den Bosch and Breda in the province of North-Brabant, Tilburg does not have a historical city centre. This paper will deal with a historic building that used to be in the city of Tilburg but had to make place for the growing industry of the city.

First of all, this building and its location will be described in detail. Afterwards it will be described what kind of audience is interested in visiting the sight and how they deal with the presence of an historical site in their living environments. Following that the local, regional, national and European policies regarding historical buildings that are intact anymore will be described and it will be described how a sight that does not attract tourists or generally does not have any monetary value, can still be a source of social capital for a community. Finally, some advice will be given on how a piece of heritage that seems to be lost can also stay part of the cultural heritage for future generations.

Many historical buildings that were Tilburg have been demolished in order to make place for factories or for the city ring that was built in the second half of the 20th century (Joachems, 2016). One of the buildings that was demolished in order to make place for the growing industry in the city was the Castle of Tilburg (Kasteel van Tilburg). The Castle of Tilburg was most likely built around 1480 and was located in the current Van Bijlandtstraat in the neighbourhood Hasselt in Tilburg and was owned by “The Gentlemen of Tilburg” (De heren van Tilburg) (Geerts, 2013).

The first “Gentlemen of Tilburg” lived in the Castle named “Ter Borch” in the nearby town of Oisterwijk and in Tilburg they owned a farmstead called “De Rijt”. In 1450, the “Gentleman of Tilburg” bought a “steenen camer” in the area Hasselt. A steenen camer is basically a house made out of stone instead of wood, which was more common building material. One of the gentlemen called Jan van Haestrecht transformed this house into a castle. However, the castle was not resistant to violence and wars and already in 1600, the original castle replaced by a new one.

This new castle existed until 1755, when it was demolished with only its foundations remaining intact. From 1754 onwards, the castle was owned by the Van Hogendorp family, who built a new building on the grounds. This time it was a rectangular building surrounded by a canal. However, the when the masculine lineage of the “Gentleman of Tilburg” became extinct in 1858, the Van Hogendorp daughters decided to sell the castle to a vintner who in turn decided to eventually demolish the castle in 1859.

What did this castle look like?

Despite the fact that we cannot see the castle anymore with our own eyes, Pierre van Beek has described in Het Nieuwsblad van het Zuiden (The Newspaper of the South) what the Castle supposedly looked like. In his article it is described that the castle was surrounded by a canal and its entrance was accessible by crossing a wooden bridge, which had two towers at its entrance. The castle itself consisted of three floors and an attic with a hipped roof. The interior of the castle consisted of a lobby, several rooms, a baking oven and four marble chimneys.

Outside the castle’s walls there was a vineyard and some fruit trees. The “Gentlemen of Tilburg” did not not only possess the castle itself, they also possessed a considerable amount of land outside the castle’s canals. On these grounds there was a couch house, stables for horses, a house for the gardener, a dovecote and an orangery, which was a building where foreign crops (such as oranges) were stored in winter. Besides these buildings, there was also a forest behind the castle, in this forest was an icehouse which was used to save fruits and there was a big fishing pond in the forest (van Beek, 1970).

What is left of the castle?

After the castle was demolished, manufacturer Pessers decided to build a wool washing and sheep leather factory on the grounds. The factory was eventually closed in 1977 to make space for housing. After the factory was closed and the construction of the houses began, archaeological excavations were done on the grounds. During these excavations, the foundations of the “steenen camer” and the multiple building phases of the castle were found. During these excavations thousands archaeological objects were found, which give our generation an idea of what life in the castle could have looked like. Some of these objects are show in MFA de Poorten, a local community centre, in Tilburg and other objects, such as a map dating back to 1760, are stored in the Regional Archive of Tilburg because they are too vulnerable to show to the public (Stadsmuseum TIlburg, 2013).

After the excavations, houses were built on the former grounds of the castle, and on the area of the castle itself, a park (Stenen Kamerpark) was made, and the foundations of the castle have been made visible in the park (Kastelen in Nederland, 2016). The foundations of the castle in the park is not the only place in Tilburg where we can see (the remains) of a castle, one can also find a castle of the logo and the weapon of the municipality Tilburg (Geerts, 2009).

Despite the castle not being present anymore, there is still a lot of interest in the history of the castle, so for instance in January 2018 a lecture about the castle was held in the Regional Archive of Tilburg (Heemkundekring Tilborch, 2018). Also in 2017, the year that King Willem-Alexander visited Tilburg on his birthday (27 April, Kingsday) attention was paid to the castle. Under the name “Kasteel013” many activities were organised in the park where the castle was located. Kasteel013 was a large local cultural project with the aim to give the castle attention again, despite it not being visible anymore.

Even many people that live in the neighbourhood are not aware of the present of the castle, despite the street names in the neighbourhood being named after the inhabitants of the castle (for instance Van Hogendorpstraat)  or even carrying the word “kasteel” in the street name (such as Kasteeldreef) (Kasteel013, 2017). On the 21st of April 2017, a whole day of activities related to the castle took place in the neighbourhood.

During the day a sports day for the local primary school took place in the Stenen Kamerpark and later on in the day activities were organised for visitors all ages such as a walking-route in the neighbourhood including a storytelling experience about the castle and a visit to the exhibition on the castle in MFA De Poorten. The highlight of the day was a theatrical performance on the foundations of the castle in the Stenen Kamerpark (Kasteel013, 2017). The project was realised with the help of the “Buurtcultuurfonds Tilburg” (neighbourhood culture foundation). The aim of this foundation is to stimulate cultural activities in several neigbourhoods in Tilburg (Duindam, sd).

In the cultural policy of the municipality Tilburg's it is stated that heritage has a large unifying power. Telling stories about the history of Tilburg give meaning to the city and increases the awareness of the identity of inhabitants. When stories about Tilburg are told in the right context, inhabitants get a more accurate view of the urban development of the city. Heritage in the city is good for inhabitant’s identity, authenticity and it creates social cohesion, also heritage can be an inspiration for education, art and literature or storytelling (gemeente Tilburg, 2016). This was something that could also be seen in the activities organised on the Kasteel013 day, since there were opportunities to create paintings et cetera and stories about the castle and the life in the neighbourhood were told in an interactive manner (Kasteel013, 2017).

In the cultural policy document of the province North-Brabant it becomes clear that heritage is an important part of our living environment. According to the cultural policy calendar, heritage is essential for people’s imagination. In heritage one can find norms and identities of a living environment, it can be a force for innovations, and it can inspire people. Heritage can be a reason for people to get to know each other better and to come up with creative ideas to keep the heritage piece alive (Meijs-Appels, 2015).

According to a letter posted by the Dutch ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, O.C.W.) the majority of the Dutch population find it important that heritages pieces stay intact and when living environments are changing it is important to secure our heritage, such as unique historical city centres, monuments and historical landscapes and these sites can inspire us in the creation of our living environment of the future.

An important challenge is to get all inhabitants involved with the heritage. It is important that people are involved with heritage starting from a young age, one way this can be done is through education (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, 2018). This involvement of education was something that can also be seen in the case of the Kasteel013 project where a local primary school was involved in the activities (Kasteel013, 2017).

The Council of the European Union finds cultural heritage an important issue as well. Cultural heritage pieces are unique features of our living environments that cannot be replaced by something new and it encourages citizens’ involvement in the public life. Cultural heritage can give citizens the feeling of being part a larger community and increase the well-being of individuals and their communities. Also, cultural heritage gives inhabitants the opportunity to develop creatively, which can also be seen in the Kasteel013 project since this project gave many inhabitants of the neighbourhood to show their creative skills (Council of the European Union, 2014).

Whether an investment project is small or big, they all impact the society in one way or another, so also the activities that were organised on the grounds of the castle have some impact on the society. These effects cannot only be calculated in monetary value but also in social value. Cultural heritage can help to increase how inhabitants identify themselves with the neighbourhoods they are living in (Bowitz & Ibenholt, 2008). Many local organisations such as a theatre, a choir and a cookery school were involved in the organisation of the Kasteel013, also many individuals that helped out are inhabitants of the neighbourhood, on the website it is even stated that practically all people involved in the project come from the neighbourhood as well (Kasteel013, 2017). 

In Ruigrok (2006) it is stated that the economic value of a piece of cultural heritage can produce a certain amount of welfare for the community and this welfare might even be more valuable than the financial benefits that an historical object can produce (Ruijgrok, 2006). As in the case of the castle of Tilburg there is not a lot left of the original, this involvement of the community is very important to keep the story alive.

According to Murzyn-Kupisz (2013), when new attention is paid to a sight, new visitors can be attracted but this may discourage old visitors from coming back to the sight (Murzyn-Kupisz, 2012). As described earlier, Tilburg does not have many historic buildings that can attract new visitors, therefore it is not necessary to differentiate old and new visitors to a site such as the castle of Tilburg. But when a “new” heritage-related service comes available, and this service can be related to both cultural and recreational service it may become a reason for local residents to pay attention to the heritage piece since they do not longer have to leave their neighbourhood to get a service related to heritage.

Also, the projects related to the Castle of Tilburg are focuses on the local community. Although a project like Kasteel013 could be visited by everyone, they were mainly people living in the neighbourhood that visited the project and felt really proud that they are living on the grounds where once a castle stood. During such an event money could be earned by selling food and drinks etcetera, but such an event also has the potential to support the knowledge economy and the creative sector.

During the Kasteel013 event the visitors learned a lot about the castle while at the same thing they were doing something creative such as making a painting or watching a creative performance by a local theatre ensemble or a local choir (Kasteel013, 2017). A heritage sight in the neighbourhood can also an important indicator for the local identity, if there is a heritage sight present it a make the inhabitants feel proud of their neighbourhood, it can give them a sense of belonging and pride and can be reason for intra-generational communication and it can develop social capital (Murzyn-Kupisz, 2012).

Intra-generational communication was also something that could be see during the Kasteel013 project since all generations living in the neighbourhood where involved in the project, there was not one target age for the participants, there were both activities especially aimed at children attending the local primary school and other activities that could be visited by people of all ages (Kasteel013, 2017). People do not only feel proud during such a day that they live in neighbourhood where once a castle used to be, also on social media

such as Facebook people are talking about how proud they were of the castle that was once part of their living environment. On Facebook there are several groups especially for inhabitants of Tilburg, one of these groups is called “Alle Tilburgse Herinneringen In Een Group” (All Memories of Tilburg In One Group”), in this group inhabitants can share historic pictures or stories about the city and other inhabitants can give threactions to it. Also a picture of the castle was posted in the group. The user that posted the photo give a little bit of information about the castle and the street where it used to be located some other users show their pride of the castle in the reactions they post. One user says : “Unbelievable, I have been living in Tilburg for my entire life, the photos that I see in this group keep surprising me. How things have change. How beautiful it used to be!”. Another user says: “My parents told me last year that I am living on the former grounds of the castle … quite cool” (Facebook, 2014).

Despite people being proud of living on the grounds of a former castle the fact remains that the castle has been removed in order to make space for the growing industry, something the inhabitants are proud of nowadays and it is an important asset for the future of the city's (Luycks, nd). Also in Eindhoven, another city characterised by it’s industrial past, the traces of the history before the industrial revolution cannot be viewed with our own eyes anymore. During the National Archaeology Days in 2018, city guides gave tours through the city of Eindhoven explaining how life in the city used to be like and they talks about the history of buildings that have disappeared in Eindhoven (van Elten, 2018).

During the National Archaeology Days in 2018, Tilburg participated with an programme focused on the Roman past of the city, but also a little bit about Tilburg during Medieval times and the Castle of Tilburg (Nationale Archeologie Dagen, 2018). This year the National Archaeology Days will take place again on the 11th, and 12th and 13th of October 2019. The programme of this year has not been announced yet, but I think it would be a nice opportunity to show the history of Tilburg again to the public. In Eindhoven they have created 3D-glasses that visitors can wear during a city tour in Eindhoven and through the glasses they can see what the city used to look like (van Elten, 2018). I suggest to do something similar in Tilburg. Combining technology with history is something that can attract many layers of the population, those who are interested in seeing how 3D technology works and those who are interested in the history of their own city. Being able to see with your own eyes how a city used to look like may result in people being able to see the hidden beauty of Tilburg again.

References

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