The style of Prince Frederik

Do you prefer your interior to form a single cohesive entity? Prince Frederik of the Netherlands used to do that on a grand scale. Bridges, service residences, retaining walls, farms, his own country houses: many architectural elements on his nine country estates in Wassenaar were given the same appearance. This was both beautiful EN everyone could see at a glance that they were on Prince Frederik's property.

De Paauw was the first country estate in Wassenaar that Prince Frederik purchased. He made this purchase in the spring of 1838 and was very eager to get to know his new house and park outside the city. In August, he celebrated his father's birthday party there, King Willem I. That does not sound very surprising, but it was, because the previous owner's furnishings were still there! This furniture was only put up for sale in December of that year; so all that time the prince lived surrounded by other people's belongings.  

Drive for expansion

Following De Paauw, Prince Frederik successively purchased eight more country estates up to 1854: Raaphorst, Ter Horst, Eikenhorst, Backershagen, and Groot Haesebroek, including Drie Papegaaien, Wildrust, and Het Zwarte Hek. His territory thus extended from the Veurseweg in Voorschoten to the dunes and covered no less than 886 hectares. The prince wanted to embellish the diversity of buildings and natural beauty and merge them into a single whole. To this end, many buildings dating from different eras were modernized into a single style.

Court Architect Wentzel

For the built components, Prince Frederik brought the German architect Hermann Wentzel to the Netherlands in 1851. The prince knew him from the Prussian court in Berlin, the place where he himself had grown up. Wentzel was his court architect for twenty years. He began by expanding and embellishing De Paauw into a Prussian palace. Lastly, he worked on renovating Ter Horst. He created unity by adapting existing elements and building new bridges and service residences in a consistent style. 

The chalet style

Wentzel applied the chalet style, a romantic architectural style that was very popular in the nineteenth century. At that time, people were very fond of the 'unspoiled' chalets in the mountainous regions of Switzerland, for example. The style was characterized by overhanging roofs and exuberantly decorated wood carvings on eaves and facades. The decorations featured a pattern of openings, much like lace. This is also referred to as openwork or lace work. He often combined the chalet style with other architectural styles to create an eclectic whole.

The retaining wall

When Prince Frederik purchased the Backershagen estate, a beautiful teahouse already stood on a high, artificially created hill. This was located along the route the carriage took when the prince drove from Eikenhorst via Backershagen to De Paauw. However, the hill was in danger of subsiding. Therefore, he had a retaining wall constructed by Hermann Wentzel. The wall was gracefully finished with a brick railing featuring openwork.

Feel free to walk over to the retaining wall: then you can admire this magnificent stonework up close. And you will have a view of another special object: the hermitage located on a peninsula, a hermit's grotto. Such follies were part of a landscaped park design, where the walker was continually surprised by exciting elements. The teahouse is now privately inhabited.

The shooting range

Prince Frederik was passionate about hunting and had a magnificent shooting lodge at De Horsten. It is a picturesque, octagonal building, with a pheasant proudly adorning its thatched roof. Attached to the building was a glass gallery. A hundred metre s away stood a rail along which a fake hare or pheasant would glide. From the hunting lodge, Prince Frederik and his guests could shoot at the moving target for practice and entertainment. Today, the hunting lodge serves as a tea pavilion: while enjoying a drink, you can admire its rich history. The hunting trophies and deer antlers are still on display on the wall.

Ter Horst

As mentioned, Prince Frederik was an enthusiastic hunter and therefore had the dilapidated Huis ter Horst renovated into a small hunting lodge in neo-Gothic style. Architect P.F.W. Mouton was commissioned for this. After an exhausting hunt, the prince and his company would settle here to recover from their efforts and enjoy a copious meal. The facade features a stepped gable slightly off-center and decorations above the doors and windows. Incidentally, he was not able to enjoy it for long; the house was completed in 1876 and Prince Frederik passed away in 1881.

Surrounding the entire hunting grounds were two metre tall columns bearing the inscription: “Private hunting grounds of His Royal Highness Prince Frederik.” It couldn’t be any clearer!

Discover it for yourself!

The Parks Route features many built elements, each of which is a jewel. The examples above are therefore only the tip of the iceberg. Go out and admire the bridges, service houses, boundary markers, country houses, and much more, all by yourself!