Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond (KNOB)
Doi
Abstract
In contrast to other European countries 19 th century-court architecture in the Netherlands has not left a strong imprint on public memory. Just as most historical cities, most palaces in the Netherlands were restored in 17 th century Dutch Classicist Style, suggesting that after the Golden Age nothing happened. This article shows that such an impression is misleading. Focusing on the new monarchy of the Restoration era (1813-1848) it becomes clear that the first Orange kings William I and II started impressive building campaigns in both the Southern and Northern Netherlands, comparable to those of the 17 th century.
Prince Frederick Henry and the Anglo-Dutch King-Stadtholder William III. Remarkably, in the early 19 th century the most magnificent palaces in neoclassicist style - except for Soestdijk - were built by the prince royal in and around Brussels. Nevertheless, the Belgian revolution of 1830 ended the role of the Orange dynasty in Brussels, after which royal and princely palaces, summer houses, and art collections were appropriated by the new Belgian monarchy. Although most of them are still in use, their origin has been completely forgotten. Strangely, this also happened to King William II's new palaces of the 1830s and 1840s in Windsor Tudor Style. This so-called William II Gothic was very popular at the time, but from the 1870s no longer fashionable in Protestant court circles after having been appropriated by Roman-Catholic architects for church building. The King was influenced by the memory of his Oxford college days, as can still be seen in the Gothic Hall of his Kneuterdijk Palace in The Hague, designed by himself as a Painting Gallery modelled after the hall of Christ Church College.
A much larger project, however, the so-called Zorgvliet Palace at his huge private domain Williams Park between his The Hague palaces and the beach of Scheveningen, had a different origin. With the help of the English architect Ashton, the King made plans for a residential palace that would surpass his lost Brussels palaces and compete with the royal 'court scapes' of Versailles, Windsor and Potsdam. Connected by kinship and marriage to the Hohenzollern, William II shared the Prussian longing for castellated palaces as developed by Schinkel for his sisters, brothers and nephews in Germany. Nevertheless, palace building was stopped abruptly after the liberal revolution of 1848, when the Orange court lost its political power and almost went bankrupt because of overspending. After William II's death in 1849 the court had to sell its magnificent art collection, and William III - who disliked Roman Catholics and the Gothic Revival - sold most of his father's palaces. For almost three decades palaces in the Netherlands were only built by the king's relatives, such as his uncle Prince Frederick who owned the famous estate Muskau at the German-Polish Border as well as the Dutch estate The Horsten near The Hague. With the help of the Prussian architect Wentzel and the Muskauer landscape designer Petzold, Frederick introduced the Schinkel Style in the Netherlands.
Nevertheless, enriched by the inheritance of his brother Prince Henry grand duke of Luxembourg, William III started a last royal building campaign in the 1870s, supporting the Baroque Revival of his favourite Eberson. Just as in the case of his father, his new plan for a residential castle at Zorgvliet failed, however, and after the king's death in 1890 the royal domains in and around The Hague were sold to the city government and some private investors. Ironically, near Lord Portland's former summer house Zorgvliet or Catshuis (used today as the official residence of the Prime Minister), the Carnegy Foundation built the famous Peace Palace in French Neo-Renaissance Style in the early 20 th century, which could be seen as the final outcome of the royal dream of a Williams Park Court
