Well Castle (Dutch: Kasteel Well) is a fully restored 14th century medieval castleEmerson College Kasteel Well Page located in the small village of Well, in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located near the border with Germany, and it is approximately 2 hours southeast of Amsterdam. Kasteel Well itself is made up of two buildings: the Main Castle and the voorburcht, or outer castle. There are two courtyards within Kasteel Well. There are also two moats: an inner and outer moat. These moats once provided protection to the castle and today provide a place to swim for many birds including multiple varieties of ducks, black swans, and geese. Kasteel Well's gardens are available for the public to walk around and admire the grounds. Here there are several well-maintained flower beds, shrubbery, fountains, tower ruins, and trees. Kasteel Well also has several accessory buildings, including a barn than is sometimes used for community events like weddings, among other events, and a tea house that has been converted into a student kitchen.
Emerson College obtained Kasteel Well in 1988 and since then has been using it to house students participating in a study abroad program. Over the years since it was obtained by Emerson, they have made several renovations, the latest of which added new rooms bringing the student capacity per semester to around 90 students.
Every fall and spring semester, approximately eighty students from Emerson's Boston, Massachusetts, campus live in and take classes at Kasteel Well. The classes at the castle have a European focus. The program is headed by program directors Daan Lodder and Rob Dückers. Students studying at the castle have class a maximum of four days per week (Monday-Thursday) and therefore have three-day weekends for travel. Therefore, as a part of their education, students are given the chance to travel throughout the European continent on those long-weekends and also participate in two mandatory educational excursions with the faculty and staff of Kasteel Well. Of late, the first of these mandatory educational excursions has been to Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands. For several years, due to European Union regulations regarding the duration of stay in the Schengen Region,Schengen Area Wikipedia Page Schengen Area#Right of stay a third excursion was required. Starting in the Spring semester of 2009 however, Emerson shortened their study abroad program at Kasteel Well to fit 90 days exactly, therefore negating the need for and avoiding the cost of an additional excursion.
List of Mandatory Excursions by Year
Source:Current Academic Calendars Old Academic Calendars Semester Excursion 1 Excursion 2 Excursion 3Fall 1999 Amsterdam Paris Florence Fall 2001 Fall 2004 Fall 2005 Spring 2006 Munich Fall 2006 London Prague London Spring 2007 Fall 2007 Spring 2008 Dubrovnik Fall 2008 Semester Excursion 1 Excursion 2 Spring 2009 Amsterdam Prague Fall 2009 Berlin Spring 2010 Prague Fall 2010Berlin Spring 2011 Prague Fall 2011 Berlin Spring 2012 MadridFall 2012 BerlinSpring 2013 MadridFall 2013 BerlinSpring 2014 MadridFall 2014 Vienna BratislavaSpring 2015 MadridSpring 2017BarcelonaSummer 2022Vienna, BudapestLondon, AmsterdamDublinSpring 2023AmsterdamFall 2023PragueSpring 2024VeniceFall 2025Vienna
References
External links
Emerson College Kasteel Well