Te Riviere Castle (also known as Huis Mathenesse) is a ruinous castle located in Schiedam, Netherlands.
Location and Name
Location
The first reference to the place was in 1268 as (House on the new Schie). The new Schie was the extension of the Schie now known as Schiedamse Schie. At its confluence with the Nieuwe Maas, Schiedam was built. At the time the branches of the Schie to Rotterdam and Delfshaven did not yet exist. Therefore the preferred route for traffic to Delft and further on to Leiden and Haarlem passed along the site of the castle.
Names
The castle's current name (house on the river) sounds suspiciously romantic, but was actually the first accepted name of the castle in medieval times. At the time, and in its context, 'house' meant a type of castle. The river was the river Merwede. After the Old Rhine had been diverted near Wijk bij Duurstede in 1122, the Lek became its main bed. The Lek now flows into the Nieuwe Maas, but in medieval times this was known as Merwede. The current Nieuwe Maas is only fed by the Rhine. Its shore is now about 1.5 km south of the castle, but this reroute of its bed already started in the 13th century.
The castle is also known as . Matenesse was the name of a nearby polder and lordship. Lord Dirk of Matenesse acquired the castle () known as House te Riviere in 1339. The castle then took the name of its proprietor.
Castle Characteristics
The 1574 castle
The current Te Riviere Castle consists of the remains of the castle as it was when it was destroyed in 1574. A painting from around 1574 shows its earlier appearance. The current ruins consist of a 20 by 17.5 m area. On it are the lower part of a tower house and the foundations of some walls.
The base of the tower house measures 12 by 12 meters. The wing north of it measures 8 by 17.5 m. The remaining southwestern space measured 12.5 by 5.5 m. In an investigation, Dutch archaeologist Jaap Renaud concluded that the small west side of the northern wing had a stepped gable, and that the remaining southwestern part was divided in two, and got two west-facing stepped gables, leading to a consistency between the painting, and the archaeological evidence. Renaud concluded that the painting indeed reflected the 1574 appearance.
Renaud also stated that the castle would have been a very exceptional construction if the 1574 situation had been the result of the original plans for the castle. The 1947-1948 excavations that Renaud led, allowed him to draw a floor plan of the tower house and part of the 1574 outer bailey. This solved the very important question whether the old painting reflected the pre-1574 situation.
In the context of investigating the relation between the picture and archaeology, Renaud then did something that was scientifically correct, but would later be proven wrong. With respect to the northern wall of the outer bailey, he concluded that this was a replacement of a wall from 1300. For Renaud, Te Riviere was a small castle with an outer bailey, comparable to Middelburg Castle near Alkmaar. However, subsequent archaeological research would lead to very different conclusions.
A formidable square castle
The current ruins show the remains of an enceinte with buttresses on the inside at a very small distance from the main tower house. This wall was also found on the western side of the supposed outer bailey. It was even known that the wall extended into the moat a bit from the 'keep'. The supposition that it had formed one continuous wall would seem obvious, but it was not. The construction date of Te Riviere Castle lay before the date that the square castle type appeared in Holland, and it would lead to a very large castle suddenly appearing in the history of Holland.
The theory that the oldest castle had been a formidable square castle became logical, when in 1962 archaeologists found that the southern wall of the supposed outer bailey was very similar. See 1975 floor plan.
The conclusion from the archaeological evidence was that in about 1265, the construction of a large 45 by 50 m (almost) square castle with square corner tower was started. On the inside of the northwest corner, was the still remaining 12 by 12 m tower house. This was cut off from the rest of the castle by a small inside moat.
The project for this formidable castle was not completed. Work on the castle and especially the main tower house continued in 1300-1304, but after that the project was left unfinished. In 1339, the castle is granted to Dirk van Matenesse, who begins to finish the main tower, leading to the 1574 castle.