The Forgotten Time.
The early nineteenth century is not alive in the IJ-city, nobody really pays attention to it. The seventeenth century is our age of glory, the eighteenth century is a period of enormous wealth. After 1800, decay set in and after the departure of the French in 1813, the country was left impoverished, writes Architectural Historian Pieter F. Vlaardingerbroek in the November 2021 edition of ” Through Different Eyes “.
All year around, Brinkman Fine Real Estate invites you into a carefully curated portfolio of properties in The Netherlands and beyond, each one a masterpiece of architectural distinction.
We look forward to welcoming you at Singel 60 soon.
Staircase of Herengracht 380 – 382 (1888), designed by A. Salm (1857-1915).
THE FORGOTTEN TIME
‘Soestdijk is a ruin’, was the headline in the Amersfoort Newspaper recently. The central question was whether Soestdijk Palace would not be better off demolished. Apparently, the building does not evoke warm feelings, despite its enormous historical significance. In 1815, the Dutch people donated the building to the Prins van Oranje, hero of Quatre Bras, later King William II. The Battle of Quatre Bras was two days before the Battle of Waterloo and crucial to the final victory over Napoleon. A national monument, gloriously rebuilt by the architects Jan de Greef and Zeger Reyers in the style of the late Empire. A worthy residence for the prince who had married Anna Paulowna, the sister of the Russian Tsar Alexander I, the liberator of Europe.
Demolition? It is a Dutch reaction to the early nineteenth century. The seventeenth century is our age of glory, the eighteenth century is a period of enormous wealth. In the minds of the Dutch, poverty set in with the French. After 1800, decay set in and after the departure of the French in 1813, the country was left impoverished. The state is poor as well as the people. The Industrial Revolution in the Netherlands lags behind in Belgium, Germany and England and it is not until 1860 that the Netherlands begins to flourish again. That is the general idea.
But this idea is not correct. Crisis creates poor, but there are always people who benefit from crisis. Amsterdam remained a major financial centre in the early nineteenth century. Hope, Voombergh, Stoop and Borski were rich and commissioned to build large country houses in Bloemendaal and Zeist. They surrounded themselves with Greco-Roman architecture, with columns and pilasters and walls finished in stucco marble. Most of the year, however, they lived in Amsterdam, although it is hardly known where they lived.
The early nineteenth century is not alive in the IJ-city, nobody really pays attention to it. That is unusual, because perhaps half of the canal ring consists of façades built between 1800 and 1860. Often brick frame gables, a bit like the houses in London. Tight on the outside, reworked on the inside. A very interesting time, in which the style of neoclassicism is supplemented by influences from Turkey, Arabia and China. A time when we look not only to other cultures, but also to the styles of Europe’s past: Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance.
The forgotten time is a time when anything is possible. Where foreign cultures serve as inspiration and where we look back on times gone by with nostalgia.
Text: Dr. Pieter F. Vlaardingerbroek, Architecture Historian
Source: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, Amersfoort / Doc. nr. 527879
