Nyenrode Castle Business University - Breukelen

Nyenrode means 'newly cleared land'. The castle was built as early as 1275, when the bishop's town of Utrecht was becoming an important trading centre. The location was strategically chosen: on the narrowest part of the Vecht, on the trade route between Utrecht-Centre and the Zuiderzee. The water of the Vecht could be used as a defence if the castle was attacked.

In the years that followed, the castle was destroyed and rebuilt several times, modernised, set on fire and restored again. From 1907 to 1930, it was owned by Michiel Onnes, an Amsterdam coffee merchant. He had Nyenrode restored and expanded so that it regained its former glory.

In 1930, it was purchased by Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. He used the castle as a showroom for his trading stock. The Jewish Goudstikker died on board the ship on which he was to flee from IJmuiden to the United Kingdom in May 1940 for the Second World War. In July 1940, his art dealership was sold to Hermann Göring and Kasteel Nyenrode came into the hands of the German Alois Miedl. After the Second World War, the widow Goudstikker bought Kasteel Nyenrode back from the Dutch State, which had managed the castle after the liberation.

Since 1946, the private business university Nyenrode has been located here. The estate and the buildings are only accessible to visitors to this university. A few times a year, there are exceptions when you can visit the castle and estate, for example on Open Monuments Day.