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…
Castle Sterkenburg, in Driebergen in the centre of The Netherlands, has received a sum of € 3.307.914,00 for several restoration projects. This is over 10% of the total sum granted for restorations this year by the Ministry for education, culture and science (OCW). Sterkenburg, which is privately owned and currently…
Mr. Kees de Ruiter, president of the new Dutch organisation responsible for the protection of the cultural heritage, RACM, held a plea to protect 10% of the Dutch cultural landscape as historical landscapes. In an interview he claimed that regional differences are disappearing in an increasing pace, pointing at the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
