The Castle Out On Keyes Road

A view of the mighty towers that overlook Castle Noz.

Castle Noz and a popular feature: a firepit for warm gatherings.

A knight in armor stands guard at the gates.

The entrance that leads to Castle Noz.

Sturdy tables are set up for a royal feast.

A new addition to the main castle is under construction.

Newly finished restrooms and dressing rooms worthy of kings and queens.

There are also features inside the castle grounds for those who need to be punished.

By Jim Cunningham and Flip Hassett

Driving west out of the little town of Snelling for about 10 miles on Keyes Road you will notice two large brick towers protruding above the trees. The area is surrounded by almond trees so this certainly looks out of place and it is.

You just don’t expect to see a castle in this area.

We had made arrangements to meet the man Casper Noz at his architectural creation — a castle, if you will — and we were greeted warmly and given a very thorough guided tour.

Noz was born and raised in the Netherlands, and graduated from college with an engineering degree at the age of 20. He was passionate about Dutch architecture and always had a dream of building a castle, or kasteel, of his own.

Noz had visited the United States with his family in 1977 and decided to return in 1978, making America his home. With an engineering degree in hand he first worked around Detroit, Michigan, but soon moved to the West Coast and the Bay Area. Working for several different companies as a contractor for a while, Noz eventually decided he wanted to start his own business and moved to the Central Valley, making Denair his home. He started working for himself as an independent contractor building homes and doing a lot of remodeling on custom homes.

During this time he met his future wife, Diane, and they were married in 1983. With his life change he still had a dream of building a castle. In 1987, the couple purchased a 20-acre plot of land between Denair and Snelling. This land was described by Noz as cow country and dry grass, but would be a beautiful place for the construction of his dream.

He drew up several different designs for his castle but settled on one that was based on the designs of the early Dutch castles . He soon went to work preparing the property, gathering materials and equipment that were needed for the initial construction. He also bought over 500 oak trees which he planted by himself and today many line the driveway to the castle.

The construction has been slow since most of the work has been done on the weekends but now that Noz is mostly retired he will be devoting more hours to building the castle. He, with some help from Diane, has laid all the bricks by hand and also has crafted all the authentic looking hinges, locks and handles for the doors and windows — trying to keep everything looking like his medieval design. But as the expression goes, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

The “kasteel” as Noz calls it, will have 12,000 square feet when finished. The two four story towers in front are complete but the large rear structure is just beginning. The needed bricks are on site and much of the rebar is in place. When the new section is complete it will be a separate structure from the completed two towers with a gate that can be raised and lowered to join the two and a moat surrounding the new addition. Noz also says when done he and Diane will be making it their home. Probably another 10 to 15 years to finish.

The public is becoming more aware of Castle Noz and the ability to hold events at the castle. They have had several weddings there, a tractor pull, graduation and birthday parties, anniversary celebrations and several other kinds of gatherings.

They have a large fire pit and when they want to start the fire, Noz will shoot a flaming arrow from on top of one of the towers to get the fire going.

He has recently built two beautiful large stone handicapped bathrooms with adjoining dressing rooms for the bride and groom. There is also another building that has a BBQ with a cooking area and also a bar. Noz is constantly looking for ways to improve the facility and when done it will indeed be a spectacular facility that will be unique to the area.

If you have a chance go visit. Just call first to make arrangements. The property is guarded by private security with cameras set up throughout the area. Call (209) 667-2061, or visit online at castlenoz.com.

Jim Cunningham and Flip Hassett are both retired, but they remain active in Merced County as community advocates, local history buffs and photographers.