Doorwerth Castle

Doorwerth Castle is a medieval citadel situated at the river Rhine close to the town of Arnhem, Netherlands. The authentic citadel, possibly wooden, is first referred to in 1260 whilst it was besieged and burned to the ground, and then it was rebuilt in stone. In 1280 this second castle become again besieged and this time the bailey turned into burned down.

This fortress probable consisted of a simple corridor-hold, two stories high with 1.20 meter thick partitions, and featured a surrounding moat which become fed by way of the nearby river Rhine. During the 14th century the fort changed into constantly enlarged. Doorwerth Castle was at first the property of the Van Dorenweerd circle of relatives. In 1402 Robert van Dorenweerd committed the fortress to the Count of Gelre, Reinald IV. In return Robert became granted the citadel and its land in fief. Around the middle of the fifteenth century the fortress became enlarged once more, this time by using knight Reinald van Homoet, the tenth Lord of Dorenweerd, who was also the proprietor of Doornenburg Castle.