Castle De Haar is located near Haarzuilens, in the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands. The current buildings, except for the chapel, date from 1892 and are the work of Dutch architect P.J.H. Cuypers.
The oldest historical record of a building at the location of the current castle dates to 1391.
For the detailed history of this castle see:
nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasteel_...
In 1892 architect Pierre Cuypers (1827-1921) was contracted to rebuild the ruinous castle, which took 15 years.
The name of Pierre Cuypers is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station (1881--1889) and the Rijksmuseum (1876--1885), both in Amsterdam.
The castle as it looks now, is an example of Neo-Gothic or Gothic Revival architecture.
It 200 rooms and 30 bathrooms, of which only a small number on the ground floor have been opened to be viewed by the public. In the hall, Cuypers has placed a statue with his own image in a corner of the gallery on the first floor.
The castle was equipped by Cuypers with the most modern gadgets, such as electrical lighting with its own generator, and central heating by way of steam. This installation is internationally recognized as an industrial monument. The kitchen was for that period also very modern and still has a large collection of pots and pans and an enormous furnace of approximately 6 metres long, which is heated with peat or coals. The tiles in the kitchen are decorated with the coats of arms of the families De Haar and Van Zuylen, which were for this purpose especially baked in Franeker. Cuypers marked out the difference between the old walls and the new bricks, by using a different kind of brick for the new walls. For the interior Cuypers made a lot of use of cast iron.
The interior of the castle is decorated with richly ornamented woodcarving, which reminds one of the interior of a Roman Catholic church. This carving was made in the workshop of Cuypers in Roermond.
Cuypers even designed the tableware. The interior is also furnished with many works of the Rothschild collections, including beautiful old porcelain from Japan and China, and several old Flemish tapestries and paintings with religious illustrations. A showpiece is a carrier coach of the woman of a Shogun from Japan. There is only one more left in the world, which stands in a museum in Tokyo.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasteel_...
Alas it is not possible to show you the beauty of the interior, because taking photos of it is strictly forbidden.
You can find some pictures when you search for it on the internet.
For more information:
www.kasteeldehaar.nl/
In 2014 the Fantasy Fair Elfia Haarzuilens will take place on the 19the, 20th and 21th of April.