Bentheim Castle

[2] Its elevated position in an otherwise very flat landscape provides an excellent view and thus a strategic location to build a castle.

[5] The epithet "strong" (firmam) suggests the castle played a vital role in the cities defences, though it is assumed it was a wooden structure, and not yet a stone one.

To the bishops of Münster and Utrecht the independent county remained a thorn in the side, and most notably in 1374 both launched attacks upon the castle.

In 1486 Graf Eberwin II gets a Fee from Frederick III and the County of Bentheim becomes an independent political entity.

In 1795 it served as a field hospital in the war against the revolutionary French Army and was set ablaze and taken by general Dominique Vandamme.