Castle Almere

Almere Castle Location: Almere General Castle type contemporary ruin Owner Thijs Blom beheer BV Built in 2000 Almere Castle is a half-finished castle in the Dutch town of Almere. Construction started in 2000 but was stopped in 2002, after which the structure was turned into a modern ruin. It is located on the Oude Waterlandseweg in Almere Haven and is visible from the A6 motorway. History The plans for building the castle date from 1999. The design is based on the 13th-century Jemeppe castle in Hargimont (Belgium). The first pile was driven on September 15, 2000. The costs of the castle were initially estimated at 60 million guilders (more than 27 million euros), later increased to 120 million guilders. The construction project was stopped in 2002 due to financial problems. In 2005 the project was purchased by the company Gravin BV, which was established for this purpose. In addition to a hotel and a wedding location in the castle, Countess also wanted to build houses on the property. To make the latter possible, however, a change to the zoning plan was needed. In 2008, the municipality of Almere decided not to agree to a proposal to that effect. Since 2013 there were plans to build an amusement park with the name WitchWorld in and around the castle. In October 2015, WitchWorld took an option to purchase the castle for 20 million euros from Gravin BV, with an escape clause if the plans for the amusement park were not met financially or politically. Since the financing of the park could indeed not be realized, it did not come to an actual purchase. [3] In November 2016, the initiators of WitchWorld were given more time to arrange the financing, but the entire project was stopped in October 2018.