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# Kasteel de Haar
- URL: https://there-are-no-secrets.ghost.io/kasteel-de-haar/
- Published: 2026-09-12T15:22:40.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-13T07:03:53.000Z
- Author: David Bass

About 12 miles from Utrecht, the imposing Kasteel (Castle) de Haar is the largest castle in The Netherlands. We checked it out yesterday. Originally built in the 1300s, it passed to the Van Zuylen family in 1440 when the last male de Haar heir died childless. 

After approximately 250 years of neglect, Kasteel de Haar was heavily rebuilt after Catholic Dutch Baron Etienne Van Zuylen, a descendant of the founding family, inherited the castle and married the Jewish French Baroness Hélène de Rothschild in 1887.

Scandalous! Both families strongly opposed the wedding. 

The castle and its gardens are most amazing. We toured the main castle, then wandered through the grounds for at least another hour. 

The Baron and Baroness loved to entertain and started a "September tradition" of hosting high society in grand style. Nobility, newly rich people, bankers, industrialists, artists and writers (why haven't I been invited? I'm a writer!) flocked to the castle every September, following weeks of preparations by the staff. 

This continued at least into the 1960s, with a grandson, Baron Thierry, also courting Hollywood celebrities such as Brigitte Bardot, Gina Lollobrigida, Joan Collins, Roger Moore, Gregory Peck, Michael Caine, Billy Wilder, Sofia Loren, Yul Brynner, and Michael York, along with opera superstar Maria Callas. 

By the numbers:

20 years, from 1892-1912, it took to rebuild the estate

30 bathrooms

200 rooms inside the main building

135 acres occupied by the castle, gardens and surrounding park

13,899 steps yesterday