Castles in the Netherlands
23 March 2026 · 3 min read · by Jan-Willem Eshuis
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about starting a drawing and painting project around one subject. Something that could guide my practice, give me a bit of structure, and allow me to gradually build a small body of work around a single theme.
After going back and forth between a few different ideas, I’ve landed on one that feels both visually interesting and personally motivating: Castles in the Netherlands. One of the best things about that: There are so many nice castles in the Netherlands.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be doing my research and will start working on pencil and pen sketches of a couple of those castles as a warm-up. Then i’ll move on to creating the watercolour paintings of them.
The Netherlands is full of castles
In my first steps on the research part I already found out The Netherlands has around 700 castles spread throughout the country, many of which date back to the Middle Ages.
Muiderslot is perhaps the most famous castle in the Netherlands. It’s beautifully located on the banks of the Vecht River in the province of North Holland. Built in the 13th century, the castle features impressive towers and a wide moat.
Another nice castle is Castle Hoensbroek. Situated in the southern part of the Netherlands. Both Hoensbroek and Muiderslot are on the list of castles to paint. As you can see I already started with some small drawings in my little sketch notebook.
