Qualla: Sabbinge Castle

Sabbinge Castle: Introduction

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit H. Janse, CC BY-SA 4.0. There are wooden shafts cut into the walls beside the four big windows on the main floor of Sabbinge Castle. They are easy to miss, but they explain the whole building. When raiders came - and on this island in 13th-century Zeeland, raiders came often enough - the residents would slide heavy bars out of those shafts and into the window openings, sealing the hall behind a wooden grid. The wide windows that make the place look almost domestic on a quiet day were never meant to stay open in trouble. Sabbinge Castle is a tower house, designed from the start as a one-building fortress, and small as it looks, it was built to be defended room by room.

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Image: H. Janse | CC BY-SA 4.0

Sabbinge Castle: A House That Was a Castle

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kasteelbeer, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl. In medieval Dutch, the word huis meant castle, not house, which is why locals still call this place Hoge Huis or Huis te Sabbinge - the High House, or the House at Sabbinge. The walls at the main floor are eighty centimeters thick, three bricks deep. The basement is vaulted. Abov...

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Image: Kasteelbeer | CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

Sabbinge Castle: Bloodshed and a Count's Order

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Maňas, CC BY 4.0. The Van Sabbinge family appears in records from the 13th century, and the castle was probably founded at that time, perhaps starting as a motte-and-bailey before being rebuilt in brick. Their cousins the Van Schenge - named for the strip of water that once separated this island f...

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Image: Michal Maňas | CC BY 4.0

Sabbinge Castle: From Castle to Farm

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit H. Janse, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1457 an heiress of Sabbinge married Wolfert van Cats, lord of the nearby village then called Oostkerke. The marriage united two neighboring lordships, and the new lord had no reason to keep his retainers spread across two castles. The Van Cats moved out. Sabbinge Castle, the s...

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Image: H. Janse | CC BY-SA 4.0

Sabbinge Castle: Sold for One Guilder

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit IJsbrand Heins, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 1959 the farmhouse-castle was in ruins and the Lenshoek family planned to demolish it. Instead, they sold it to the municipality of Wolphaartsdijk for one guilder. In 1962 the mayor, Barend ter Haar Romeny, arranged for a restoration. The Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg com...

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Image: IJsbrand Heins | CC BY-SA 4.0