Nederland - Staverden

Around the year of 1300 Count Reinald van Gelre founded a settlement on the northern Veluwe. The ‘village’ was given city rights in 1298 as a form of encouragement and as a reward for his ambitions. But the development of Staverden never happened and there has never been any urban development since. It never came to anything more than the castle. Staverden Estate however does have 16 farms spread across its lands; a coach house, orangery, watermill, dovecot, workers' houses, a church and a cemetery, and is officially the smallest city in the Netherlands and the Benelux with its ca. 50 inhabitants (situation 2018).

The castle was frequently used as a hunting lodge by the Dukes of Gelre. Since 1400 there were feudal lords living at castle Staverden, who had to preserve and defend the castle. Around 1600 the castle was owned by the Van Haersoltes, who rebuilt it into a more habitable house.

Around 1840 the manor was rebuilt again; Staverden Castle got its current form in 1905, after the estate was purchased by Frederik Bernard s’Jacob, former mayor of Rotterdam. His heirs sold the house to the current owner, the foundation Geldersch Landschap en Kasteelen.

(Picture from another season: www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/21893815)