For those who love fairytale castles, the Netherlands has a fascinating surprise, De Haar Castle, located on the lake in the surroundings of Utrecht. It can daringly be called a piece of art created in the 14th century, which has survived to this day. Like most castles, De Haar has a curious history, sometimes vivid, sometimes even tragic.

For the first time, the medieval castle was mentioned in historical documents in 1391. For more than 50 years, it belonged to the De Haar family. They built the first houses in this area and gradually began to expand it. In 1449, the castle and estate passed to the Van Zuylen family and remained in their ownership for many centuries.

The castle was quite often severely damaged. It suffered the most in the Hook and Cod wars in 1482. The next disaster was a tornado that swept over the city in 1647. As a result, the castle was almost destroyed by the end of the 19th century.

In 1890, the estate with ruins passed to Baron Etienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt van de Haar. He was married to a wealthy Rothschild heiress that allowed the new owner to focus on the restoration of the ancient castle. The baron invited the best architects who had been working on the restoration for almost 20 years.

Today the castle is not private property: since 2000, it has belonged to the Society for Preservation of Nature Monuments in the Netherlands. The buildings display artworks given by heirs of van Zuylens to the society.

Not only the castle and splendid parks surrounding it make it intriguing but also luxurious interiors recreated during the last large-scale. Most rooms are decorated in the neo-Gothic style seen in stained-glass windows, sculptures, shapes, and finishing of window openings.

Each room has unique exhibits previously used by the former residents: antique ceramics, paintings, furniture, statues, tapestries of the 16th century. Besides, there are family coats of arms and mottos of the Rothschilds, van de Haars and van de Zuylens, placed in the rooms in their honour.