Gregorius Halman, who lives in the small community of Blesdijke, in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands, since 1992, is constructing a castle in the yard besides his house.

YouTube had a 3'24" video made in 2007, produced on behalf of the regional newspaper "Dagblad van het Noorden", a video that meanwhile is no longer available.

In this video Halman talked about his creative activities. He speaks dutch, and the movie is not subtitled, so here is a transcript, translated into english.

Transcript

Gregorius Halman: I am crazy type, but I'm a lucky crazy type. So I am constructing a building because of the beauty of the forms and not because of its functionality, not because of its efficiency. That’s what Americans do. It flatters your eye, those lines.

Reporter’s voice over: Already fifteen years Gregorius Halman from Blesdijke is building his fantasy-castle in the yard besides his house. A tribute to the Moorish and Romanesque architecture.

Halman: I actually dream of the lines of building styles and I'm a fan of the Romanesque style. Round shapes. These you meet too in the Moorish buiding style: North Africa, southern Spain.

This is actually about letting a dream become reality. But the dream is better than reality, I must admit.

In my dreams I often see the most beautiful fairy-tale buildings. And when I'm at work, then the reality just is not what I've dreamed about. But nevertheless I will be trying to go on..

Reporter’s voice over: But his building is not just a dream.

Halman: A major opposition to the current style of building, against the sheet piling and large boxes in industrial zones. You remove the emotion, the feeling and the fun out of the work.

Reporter’s voice over: The whole castle is constructed by using old materials, which he collects everywhere, like these bars.

Halman: This wood is from 1500, it’s oak from 1500.

Reporter: Really?

Halman: Yes, really.

Reporter: How do you know that?

Halman: This wood comes from a farm-inn. And I was there when it was demolished I bought all the wood for the bint work.

Reporter’s voice over: Halman enjoys the special stones in the walls of his castle.

Halman: These are old stones of the first national roads in the Netherlands, (points to a stone), this is actually a bantling, yes, but all those bantlings are my favorites.

Reporter’s voice over: For days he is busy with the scaling of old bricks, which often are transported to the site in blocks of debris.

Halman: Somebody in Lelystad or Almere *, I do not know where, builds a castle of concrete, and everything is new ... That's nothing, that is really nothing. It's monumental, or pompous, but there is no atmosphere, it never comes alive, it’s nothing.

Reporter’s voice over: Occasionally, mr Halman, with some friends, already stays in the castle, but he does not know when it will be finished and, actually, this does not really interest him either.

Halman: When it will be finished? This is an unimportant question. I mean, I'm already finished. Completely ready? Yes, when will my life be ready?

It is not, how do you call it, its not an obsessive compulsive disorder or anything like that. I'm working on the castle when I have fun and feel fine.

Reporter: For now there is still enough to be done.

* Halman refers to a million euros commercial project in Almere, a hotel with annexes in the form of a castle;construction works have started but were interrupted, leaving the premisses nowadays (2010) with some empty casco’s

added to OEEE texts june 2010