Palace Het Loo
William & Mary’s Summer Residence
In 1685 and 1686, Stadtholder William III & Princess Mary Stuart had a summer residence, Palace Het Loo, built in Apeldoorn. The palace & garden were expanded between 1692 and 1694, after William & Mary had become King & Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, in order to reflect their newly acquired royal status. Designed in the Dutch classicist style typical of the 17th century, Het Loo is, together with the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, one of the most impressive palaces in the Netherlands, and its baroque garden is exceptional. In 1984 the palace became a museum, following renovations meant to reverse most post-17th-century modifications and to make the building more fire-resistant. In 2023 the museum reopened after yet another comprehensive renovation that included removing asbestos and bringing the museum in line with modern standards.
In the palace-building business of 17th-century Europe everybody who was somebody looked to King Louis XIV and his Palace of Versailles for inspiration, and William & Mary were no exception. Het Loo has therefore often been called the ‘Dutch Versailles’, but it isn’t. Although it’s a grand palace by Dutch standards, there’s no French baroque architecture to be seen here, and the garden is smaller than those in Versailles, which is good news, because it allows you to explore the entire estate in just one day. As said above, the garden is something really special. Typical for the 17th century, it is geometrical and essentially symmetrical, with axial roads and elaborate baroque parterres, featuring some very nice fountains & cascades, and exotic flowers native to distant lands of the Dutch Empire. The complexity of composition & richness of ornamentation make it one of the major gardens of the baroque era.
paleishetloo.nlReader Comments
Jan
After William & Mary purchased the medieval castle known today as Het Oude Loo in 1684, the Dutch ambassador in Paris asked the Académie royale d'architecture to come up with a design for a new residence to be built on the grounds of Het Oude Loo, but the building for which Mary laid the first stone on 7 May 1685 doesn’t have a French look & feel. We’re not sure who was responsible for the final design, but it is generally assumed that it was the Dutch architect Jacob Roman who turned the Royal Academy’s master plan into the palace that we see today. The interior, including the stairwell, was designed by Daniel Marot, as was the garden.
Jean-Baptiste
It has been suggested that the design made by the Académie royale d'architecture was not for Palace Het Loo but for De Voorst House, close to Zutphen, a country house in the French classicist style commissioned by Arnold Joost van Keppel, which was built between 1695 and 1697 by Jacob Roman & Daniel Marot.
Linda
Located in a lower part of the Veluwe — ‘an unpleasant sandy valley’ according to Leonhard Christoph Sturm, who visited the palace in 1697 — Het Loo was ideally situated for a garden, with water flowing from surrounding higher sources for its plants & fountains.
Leonhard Christoph Sturm
Es lieget dieſes Königliche Luſt- und Reſidentz-Schloß in einem unangenehmen ſandigen Thal, auf einem darinnen erhabenen kleinen Hügel, welchen es ſamt ſeinem Garten gantz einnimmt, daß man nicht anderſt ſchlieſſen kan, als es habe der König vornemlich die Ehre geſuchet, daß er die Natur getrotzet, und aus dem unangenehmſten Orth, der weit und breit zu finden, einen Platz von recht bezauberender Schönheit gemachet. Ich ſpreche mit Recht bezauberend, weil viel daran zu ſehen, daß das Gemüth und wird man ſo geblendet, daß man leichtlich alle Fehler überſiehet.
François
After King Louis Napoleon assumed the Dutch throne in 1806, he had radical changes made to the palace’s exterior, with a layer of white plaster applied to its outer walls. Het Loo was therefore also known as The White Loo at that time. He also had the formal garden replaced by an English garden in the romantic style.
Matthias
FYI: Loo is an old Dutch word, meaning ‘open space in the forest’.
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