In the inset is Assumburg Castle. Its foundations date back to the thirteenth century but it was rebuilt in 1546. Its walls are not very strong and the castle was hardly a fortification. In 1700 a wealthy merchant of Amsterdam, one Jean Deutz (1655-1719), bought the place and enhanced it with a baroque-styled park which was restored in 2009. Already at the beginning of the eighteenth century (1730) a copy of the Abduction of the Sabine Women (1583) by Giambologna (1529-1608) graced the garden. The original is in Florence, Italy. The present , modern sculpture by Elisabet Stienstra (1967-) is not a copy but an original creation albeit something of a pastiche: Sabine Puppetry. It means to demonstrate the peace of the garden. The original, classical story has it that the Romans had abducted the Sabine women; their men after many years decided on a war of retribution. But the Sabine women now happily married to Romans and with children thrust themselves between the two armies and forced a peace.
