Historical Gardens

Interesting stories emerge from documents produced by the council of Velsen. Finally, the minutes of the last debates of the old council have been published in November (debates dating back to Januari and March 2006). It is fascinating to see how desparate the former council was to get Beeckestijn sold before the elections in March [...]

In recent news: Natuurmonumenten has bought Jagtlust for €6,2 million. Jagtlust is one of the many estates in ’s Graveland, but less well known because up till now it has been private property. The current owner will be living in the coach house after the sale. The house and coach house will be restricted areas, [...]

In the mean time I have been digging up some more information on the architect mentioned in my previous post: T. Henry Reetz, though it is hard to really get a grip on this architect.
He was born in France, in 1685, and probably moved to Berlin soon after. He must have had an early talent [...]

The Cascade weblog presents a picture of the latest discovery concerning Paleis Het Loo in Apeldoorn: a previously unknown design for its gardens. The design is dated 1706 and made by T. Henry Reetz (1680-1765), “königlich preußischen und kurhannoverschen Hofarchitekten” in Berlin.
At the time, Reetz worked for one of the people who unsuccessfully claimed rights [...]

Update (Feb. 4, 2007): the site of the province Gelderland provides us with a report on the ins and outs of the way the groundwater surrounding Paleis Het Loo is affected by the extraction of water on behalf of the museum’s fountains. It also gives a nice look at the complexities of managing fountains at [...]

After the summer holidays, which seamlessly followed the political dolldrums of the aftermath of the local elections in spring, some new developments concerning Beeckestijn can finally be noticed.
First, the new councillor responsible for Beeckestijn came with a rather peculiar statement. As the former council had almost sold Beeckestijn, there was no room anymore for a [...]

Beeckestijn popped up in a Dutch television commercial recently. Wait for or skip to the second half of the video. Visible are the stairways to the 1719 pond and the pond itself, the 1960’s berceau and the flower garden.

Given the troublesome position Beeckestijn is in at the moment, it would be nice when part of [...]

The research I have done for the Frankendael estate in Amsterdam (Watergraafsmeer) is more or less reflected in this website (in Dutch). I will be issueing a more complete picture in English in due time.