Kasteel Limbricht — Entgen Luijten, 1674

OVERVIEW

Kasteel Limbricht stands beside woods at the edge of the village of Limbricht, in Sittard-Geleen in Dutch Limburg. It is a rare example of a motte castle, built on an artificial mound that sits like an island inside a broad moat. The present four-winged castle was built in Maasland Renaissance style by Nicolaas van Breijll; a chronogram over the gate gives 1622.

HISTORY

The motte probably goes back to the 10th century; under the present buildings are the remains of a round stone donjon, probably 12th-century and rebuilt about 1250. The Duke of Parma stayed here in 1579, during the Eighty Years' War, when the castle was plundered. In 1813–1814 it served as a military hospital for thousands of sick and wounded French soldiers returning from the Battle of Leipzig; 687 of them died and were buried in the French cemetery in Limbricht. In 1917 it held German prisoners interned as smugglers, and from 1984 it housed the Limburg folk-life museum.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

In the 17th century the castle housed the local court. In 1674 that court accused Entgen Luijten of 'hexerei en quade toeverei' — witchcraft and evil sorcery. She denied everything for three months before she was tortured. After several interrogations she was found dead in the prison with a blue cotton noose around her neck. Although the post-mortem by two physicians pointed clearly to strangulation, she was posthumously found guilty and the court's conclusion was suicide from a sense of guilt. She died in the dungeons of Kasteel Limbricht and was reputedly the last 'witch' put to death in the Netherlands. Susan Smit based her historical novel De heks van Limbricht (2021) on these events.

VISITING

The forecourt farm is a restaurant, meeting and party venue and an official wedding location; the main castle has been under renovation since 2017.