De Paltz estate

De Paltz
Nature reserve
General information
Country	The Netherlands
Location	Utrecht province
Closest city	Soest
Opened	1860
Current inhabitant	Herman van Veen
Management	Het Utrechts Landschap
Coordinates	52° 9′ NB, 5° 16′ OL
Size	77 hectare

De Paltz estate is a country estate with grounds and a nature reserve between Soesterberg and Soestduinen in the municipality of Soest, in Utrecht province. Its surface is 77 hectare and the park includes avenues, a carriage house, a waterfall, a guest residence and the villa which houses the bulk of the Herman van Veen Arts Center. The estate was bought by Herman van Veen in 2015. There is also a green duck-sized version of Alfred Jodocus Kwak's clog house.

History

On the 18th of December 1823 Andries de Wilde bought the Pijnenburg estate for ƒ 24.800,--, which included some of the area De Paltz was originally part of. He bought other pieces that would become De Paltz on November 11 1836 from major landowner, and mayor of Zeist, Frans Nicolaas van Bern. De Wilde started auctioning his estate on June 15 1860, while he personally started living in the southern part of Pijnenburg. The ground that would be named De Paltz was bought by squire Jacob Philip Albert Leonard Ram, mayor of Breukelen.

Squire Ram had De Paltz estate built on his newly acquired grounds. The farm that had been present on the estate was rebuild after a fire in 1861. This was followed by the construction of three workers' houses in 1863, and a villa, a carriage house, a gardener house and a stable in 1867. In that same year work was started on the park, possibly following the designs of landscape architect Hendrik Copijn.