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, for ƒ 8.950,--.

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 Jan Copijn, father of Hendrik Copijn, which was realized by Leonard Springer.

For unknown reasons Squire Ram was placed under guardianship and his estate was auctioned off, on July 5th 1872, to squire Louis Rutgers van Rozenburg, an insurer based in Amsterdam, for ƒ 25.000,--. He first used it as a summer residence until he moved in with his family on the 24th of April 1880. He had Leonard Springer redesign the park in 1876. After his children had moved away and his wife had passed away on the 18th of January 1892, Rutger van Rozenburg himself died on the 15th of July 1908 on the estate.

A year later on June 8 the estate was passed on to his eldest son David Louis van Rozenburg and his family. They sold the estate on the 14th of February 1922 to the brothers Van der Krol. At this point the estate was 110 hectare in size. The brothers Van der Krol never lived there, but cut down a substantial part of the forest and replaced it by production forests (Douglas firs) to benefit mining on the estate. Up until the 1870s when the mines closed the brothers sold the wood from the trees.

Nature lover Egbert S. Raatjes bought the estate in 1984 to protect it from the brothers Van der Krol who had plans to excavate the sand on the grounds. He renovated the carriage house and started to try and restore the park. The surface area of De Paltz was 77 hectare at this point.

During the second World War De Paltz was abused by German occupiers as Waldlager, which meant Luftwaffe personel could take residence here in safety, as opposed to near the airports in the neighborhoud. Later on it was also used for the Christelijke Stichting Rehabilitatiecentrum 'In de ruimte' (lit. The Christian Foundation Rehabilitationcentre 'In the space'), as an outside place for Scouting and possibly the villa was rented to followers of Bhagavan. After that Raatjes placed anti-squatters in the villa of which Edith Leerkes was the last one.

References

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