The knight Dirk Loef of Horne built Loevestein as a simple square brick building to collect tolls from river traffic on the Maas and Waal. The article gives conflicting dates: 1361 in the infobox, 1357 to 1397 in the introduction, and 1357 to 1368 in a later section. Around 1575, under William the Silent, it grew into a larger fortress with earthen fortifications, stone bastions, two moats, an arsenal and barracks.
The Geuzen took it on December 9, 1570, and the Spanish took it ten days later. The Dutch retook it on June 25, 1572.
From 1619 it held political prisoners, including Hugo Grotius. In 1621 his wife hid him in a book chest. It later joined the Dutch Waterline defenses and is now a medieval museum and function center open to the public.
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