Kasteel de Haar
August, 2001
Interior
Main Hall
The Hall was originally an open courtyard and it was covered to accommodate the new design part of which was the addition of galleries on the upper floors so that it was no longer necessary to go through each room to reach another one as the architecture of the middle ages demanded. The life size statue looking down on the Hall is Jan van de Haar, the uncle of Josyna van de Haar, who inherited the house in 1440.
The picture above is a closer view of the stained glass window that is in the main Hall. There are many windows around the upper portions of the hall which were meant to let as much light in as possible to keep the feeling of an open court. The addition of the large stained glass windows on the fourth floor had the effect of shading the natural light and the atmosphere in the Hall became more subdued.
The Painted Stained Glass panel was done by Nicolas en Lenobel and depicts an ancestor, Warnald van Zuylen who was killed in battle during the Second Crusade for the Holy Land.
Kitchens
As you would imagine, the rooms are not only elegant but massive as you can see in the photo of the "cookery room" above. This term is used rather than "kitchen" because there are several rooms that make up the "kitchens", i.e. the dishwashing room, dairy kitchen, cookery room and butchery room.
The cookery room is the most original room of the house dating from the 15th century and was actually used until about 30 years ago. It has huge brick walls measuring more than 4 feet thick which acts as a great insulator and means that in summer the temperature in the room can reach 150 degrees F. (60 degrees C.).
The center of the room contains a huge double coal-fired stove from Paris with copper water reservoirs with brass taps. In the center of the stove we see an upright hot water tank on which are held many sizes of copper containers for sauces, tea, etc. Any woman would dream for a fully equipped kitchen such as this - even without their name being stamped on the many copper pans such as this family had.
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© Rollie Braam - 2001