Keppel

English translation

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Description

Description

Located on an almost square ground plan, a CASTLE of three storeys high, built of red brick with decorative details in ashlar. The building consists of a front wing with projecting central section (1615, modified circa 1777), a right-hand side wing or IJssel wing (14th century, modified between 1743 and 1750 and again in 1850) of which a donjon (four storeys, 14th century, rebuilt in 1614) forms part, a left-hand side wing or Hall wing (1619-1620, modified in 1781-1782) and a rear wing (circa 1850), all arranged around a courtyard. The castle lies within a moat and is accessible via a dam. EXTERIOR. The front wing or gatehouse is built of red brick and decorated with horizontal ashlar drip mouldings and painted bands. It contains the entrance and is crowned by a stepped gable in Vredeman de Vries manner with fluted Ionic pilasters on high pedestals with diamond rustication and a finial as termination, volutes along the roof edge, oculi, interconnected with ashlar bands and carved pediments above the first-floor window and at the gable top. The sculpture in the pediment above the first-floor window has been secondarily reworked. The entrance was moved to the centre of the facade in 1777 and received a high double door with heavy classicistic segmental moulding flanked by mullioned windows. On the first floor three windows with glazing bars. Between the windows of the hall and first floor are plaques with a garland set into the masonry of the same type as on the pedestals on the dam (see component 8 for this). Traces of drip mouldings and early 17th-century windows are visible. In the facade, date anchors 1615 and a stone with: 'Dit huis hef t gemackt meister Willem van Bommel'. The facade on the courtyard side shows traces of blocked windows; on the top storey bricked-up openings above a drip moulding: traces of a connecting passage or wall walk. The facade is terminated with a stepped gable. In the corner between the front wing and the hall wing stands a stair tower with windows under arched or rounded arch spans. On the third from highest bay, a hoist opening. At the top windows in round niches. The tower is terminated with a helmet roof. On the clock face appears the year 1814. The hall wing consists of three storeys and a slate-covered roof truss. On the corners turrets with polygonal projection. The basement storey is built of brickwork of varying sizes, relating to different building periods. In it a number of windows, the easternmost of which are in rounded arch niches. The brickwork is decorated with painted bands which continue over the small turrets. In the niches with pressed arch mullioned windows (19th century) replacing the original cross windows. In the roof plane dormer windows, small roof structures at the main roof with a slope composed roof with finial. The northeast tower on a natural stone, late Gothic corbel, has elongated niches with 19th-century windows and is terminated with a helmet roof. The southeastern tower rises from the moat, is more substantial than its counterpart, likewise has windows in round niches and is terminated with a helmet roof. On the forecourt side the hall wing has a corbel arch spanning two storeys with profiled moulding in which per storey a window. On the rear or southeastern side the hall wing is dominated by a tall, polygonal chimney and windows in rounded arch niches.

The lower windows are blind. On the courtyard side, the windows of the hall were closed in 1781-1782 for the benefit of a collection of portraits that was then brought into the hall. Date anchors with 1619. The donjon on the northwest corner of the castle consists of a basement storey, three residential storeys and a roof truss structure. The brickwork is enlivened with painted bands. Windows in arches. Hipped roof with slates covering, set back. Roof dormers. Pigeon holes under the eaves. In the northwest wall a small gable stone with: 'This work was made M. Willem van Bommel Ao 1614'. The IJssel wing consists of three storeys and a roof truss structure. The differences in the masonry indicate the various alterations that this wing underwent over time. In the right section windows with small glazing bars (around 1750). In the left part rear-facing windows from the middle of the 19th century. On the rear side the IJssel wing is four bays wide. The brickwork of the lower part is of a larger format than above. In these facades some blind niches and windows with small glazing bars. On the courtyard side likewise windows with small glazing bars and 'Renovatum MDCCL'. Furthermore, on this side there is the built-out kitchen (formerly cleaning room) which was added around 1850. Around 1850 the building was closed with a rear wing. At cellar level old brick. Above that 19th-century brickwork with rear-facing windows. The hall and rear wing lie together under a continuous hipped roof that connects to the donjon on the northwest side (roof ridge of original height still visible) and on the other side against the hall wing. On the courtyard side rear-facing windows, blind niches and a small stone with 1850. Of the INTERIOR the following is noteworthy. The cellars with ribless cross vaults between wall ribs, barrel and trough vaults belong to the oldest preserved parts of the castle. Since 1762 the kitchens have been housed in the donjon. A food lift that was in communication with the dining room above it (now Music Room) has been closed off. The space where the lift was originally had an embedded stair of the donjon. On the main storey the Hall was enlarged in 1777 and symmetrically arranged with doors and false doors. In 1781-1782 stucco decorations followed by Joseph Peretti with ornamentation with hunting attributes and attributes of arts and sciences on pleated ribbons. Under the ceiling runs a stucco cornice with acanthus motifs. The ceiling itself, an oval squat dome, is decorated with interlacing ribbons, rosettes and garlands. A large rosette surrounded by a broad moulding forms the centrepiece. From the hall a carved oak stair with landing leads up to the Hall. In the second half of the 17th century the Hall received a richly decorated fireplace with the portrait of Adriaan Werner van Pallandt and his quarter-coat of arms. For the benefit of a series of princes' and family portraits the windows on the courtyard side were closed in 1781-1782. Ceiling decorated with profiled stucco cornices and garlands. On either side of the fireplace a door, the left one leading to the next room, the Billiards Room. In the early 19th century this room was redecorated with wallpaper printed with a geometric pattern of pleated draperies in yellowish-brown tones and borders of incorporated greyish-white lace on a black ground.

The doors to the Hall and a back staircase received an overdoor with a polychrome classical scene on a black background in Empire style. The white ceiling with simple central decoration adjoins the walls with a yellow-painted cove that is enlivened in the corners with white stuccoed foliage and in the centre a rosette. The barrel vault in the eastern corner towers is decorated with stucco in the vault fields of a shell and crenellated vase. Via a stairwell behind the small hall and a corridor (1743-1750) the rooms in the IJssel wing can be reached. Most rooms are furnished with 18th-century fireplaces, doors and surrounds. Noteworthy are the Gobelins Room on the south corner with five 18th-century tapestries depicting castles and birds in a landscape; the Dining Room with painted wallpaper of vases and animals in trompe l'oeil technique and the Music Room with painted wallpaper from 1746, with landscapes by Dirk Dalens III (1688-1753), originating from a house on the Herengracht in Amsterdam. The keep provides space for the Blue Salon, vaulted by two ribless cross vaults between a wide segmental arch. The springing of the arches is supported by consoles in Renaissance forms. The decorative stucco, consisting of trophies with musical attributes, medallions with garlands and ribbons, vases with flower garlands and leaf mouldings was executed in 1781-1782 after a design by Joseph Peretti. On the remaining storeys there are mainly bedrooms. The roof truss structures are, with the exception of those of the keep and entrance, all renewed around 1900.

Valuation

The CASTLE Keppel belonging to the historical country estate Keppel is of particular cultural-historical and architectural importance:

- on account of its age

- on account of the various building phases from the 14th to the 19th century which have each retained their own character

- on account of the place the castle occupies in regional history

- on account of the intact layout of the interior

- on account of a number of specifically named interior components

- on account of the ensemble value as part of the country estate