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Score: 8

To trace the origin of Kasteel Elsloo we have to go far back in time. As a free domain in the German empire Elsloo has had a castle from way back. However, in the 15th century it was partly destroyed by the river Meuse changing its course. In 1579, when Maastricht was besieged by Parma, the Spaniards set the remaining parts of the castle on fire and what was left eventually fell victim to the water.

When around 1640 the count Nicolaas d’Arberg of Valegin, who was married to the heiress of Elsloo, Olympia de Gavre Fresin, settled in Elsloo, he found that most of the old castle had been washed away by the river Meuse. He then established a manor in the ‘Panhuis’, a few hundred metres further down, on the ‘Slak’. In the part of the Meuse valley that was high enough not to be in danger, there were some farmhouses, a water mill and a brewery. Since the development of the cannon a fortified castle was superfluous, this was an ideal spot to build a castle in the form of a manor house with outbuildings. The water mill from 1601 is the oldest part of this “new” castle.
In the course of the centuries the castle and the water mill regularly changed hands and the various owners built, rebuilt and renovated it continuously. In the beginning of the 19th century the castle and outbuildings became the property of Charles Emiel M.L. de Geloes and his wife Antoinette Ernestine Francoise Countess de Borchgrave de Altena. They laid out an English landscaped garden and in 1844 they built the characteristic round tower, made of bricks and ornamental soapstone bands, which forms the corner of the service buildings and the manor house. In 1852 the marriage of the Countess Isaure de Geloes and Charles H.M., marquess de Grimaldi of the Princes of Monaco, marquess of Cagnes, Antibes and Beaux was solemnised. But they also had their share of misfortune. Where, earlier, in 1835 the ‘s Heerenschuur’ (Tithes Barn) and the stables, built of clay and wood, had gone up in flames, in 1885 the manor house itself was reduced to ashes. It was not rebuilt again after that. At a public auction in 1887 the castle with the mill and outbuildings passed to Mr H.L. Jurgens of Oss, one of the founders of what was to become the Unilever concern. He transformed it into a countryseat. Finally, in 1959, the Jurgens family sold the castle and the estate to the municipality of Elsloo and the property was then given its present use as a hotel and restaurant.