History of Vreugd & Rust
A deed from 1658 shows that a farm or homestead was sold in that year, but it was not until a later sale in 1710, to Bartholomeus Bosch, that it was named Vreugd en Rust. A previous owner had already built a new house or farm in the years before and created a beautiful garden. The complex of homestead, stables, coach house and a new farm changed hands again in 1738 and in 1751 the owner had the still existing manor house built. Subsequently, the estate came into the hands of Arnoldus Adianus van Tets, who expanded the property to over 24 hectares. Meanwhile, there is also an orangery, orchard and a garden house on the Vliet.
In 1795, the owner Hester Van Staphorst, also called the richest girl in Holland, died. Her daughter Adriana Hendrika Caan, inherits Vreugd en Rust with six farms and an immense capital. She marries Jacobus Groen van Prinsterer in 1797. Their son, Guillaume, later a famous statesman and historian, describes life at Vreugd en Rust in a diary in his student days. Life was full of social (family) obligations, but there was also time for relaxation.
Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer’ s fondness for Voorburg is evidenced by his purchase of the Hofwijck estate in 1849, which was threatened with demolition. After the death of Guillaume’s parents, his sister Cornelia Adriana received Vreugd en Rust from the enormous inheritance. Adriana married the wealthy Aert Frederik Hofman. The couple expanded their property to 170 acres. Their only daughter Jaqueline Adriane Henriette Hofman who was married in 1854 to Otto baron Van Wassenaer Catwijck, mayor of Voorburg, became the owner in 1855. The spouses each had their own equipage, a carriage with palfrenier and coachman and six horses. This necessitated Princess Marianne, who lived next door to the couple at the Rusthof estate, as the tallest person in the village, to go out riding in a carriage covered with eight horses. When the widow Van Wassenaer-Hofman died in 1889, the property of the childless couple was divided among several heirs.
In 1917, the part between the Vliet and the present Parkweg is sold to the municipality of The Hague, which opens it to the public. In 1920 the house is given the destination hotel-restaurant. The orangery becomes a teahouse. In 1961, the municipality of Voorburg bought the estate. Old prints show that Vreugd en Rust originally had a rectangular ground plan and two floors and an attic. The house was 7 window axes wide and built entirely in Louis XIV style. The entrance is notable for its rich decoration. After 1819, Petrus Jacobus Groen van Prinsterer probably had two full-height side wings built onto the house. Under the influence of the Empire style, all ornaments disappeared, the windows were modified, and the brick facade was plastered. Since this renovation, almost nothing has been changed on the front facade. However, on the rear facade, when the building was put into use as a hotel-restaurant, a full-length conservatory was built and an addition with a service room on the northeast side of the side wing.
In 1938 a renovation took place to make the building suitable for the Montessori school. In 1975, the Vronesteijn nursing academy moved into the building. In 1987 Vreugd en Rust was sold in deplorable condition and the new owner, the well-known chef Henk Savelberg (1953), opened a hotel-restaurant in a beautifully restored building in 1989. In 1990, another platform with a hard stone balustrade is built in front of the conservatory. Henk Savelberg sells his “old lady” at the end of 2014 and leaves for Bangkok to start a new restaurant. With fresh blood, Central Park by Ron Blaauw opens on November 6, 2014, after a major re-styling of one month. As of October 1, 2018, by mutual agreement, the paths separate between Ron Blaauw and Central Park and Central Park continues on its own. Originally, the Vreugd en Rust country estate was laid out in formal style. In front of the house was a fenced-in forecourt flanked by two pavilions. Behind the house we find a beautiful parterre de broderie and a baroque basin. Noteworthy is the straight axis that gives a beautiful view from the house. In the coppice forest across the East End, curved avenues are precursors to the landscape style.
In the late 18th century, the forest was cut down and on this site Hester van Staphorst had a walled kitchen garden laid out. The formal layout disappeared before 1819 as a cadastral map from that year shows. On the fleece side of the house are whimsically shaped water features with islands. Around 1830, Groen van Prinsterer commissioned J.D. Zocher jr. to complete the landscaping. The orangery in the courtyard, designed by Zocher, is probably also part of his design. In 1937, the Juliana and Bernhard Park was laid out as part of the work provision, with the “Juliana and Bernhardbank” on a dam in the pond, based on a design by Albert Termote. The structure of the park has changed little since Zocher’s time. The pavilions have disappeared as has the dome on the Vliet. A tennis court complex was built on the site of the walled kitchen garden in 1929. A donation of six deer by the Fifth Battalion Hunters in 1950 started a deer camp that grew into the current animal park. The animal enclosure was rebuilt in 1990 is classicist style. Iconic to the park is the fence with monumental pillars at the entrance on Park Road. Several sculptures are present in the park. (source: Landgoed en Buitenplaats ZH)
National Monument
Rectangularly based 18th-century main building in the classicist style. The block-shaped building is two storeys high with a white plaster coat with hard stone plinth and is roofed by a compound flattened hipped roof covered with brackish Dutch tiles. In 1852 the building was extended with two rectangular side wings. From this time also dates the wooden parapet (attic) above the tightly framed facade. Currently, the main building is used as a hotel-restaurant. The regularly divided facade of seven bays wide is articulated by 19th-century six-pane windows and pilasters at the corners. In the center of the facade there is a central risalite with an entrance consisting of a double door with semicircular fanlight set in a frame of pilasters crowned with capitals and a cornice, above which there is a storey window and an attic light. Over the entire length of the rear facade, a conservatory was built in 1920 in keeping with the style of the house. Recently (circa 1990) a platform with hard stone balustrade was built in front of it. In the interior, important features include the richly ornamented 18th-century staircase with stucco in Rococo style. In the hallway an 18th-century stucco ceiling in rococo style and some 19th-century stucco ceilings in empire style.
Rating
The main building (Vreugd en Rust) is of general interest:
- for its sober architectural design typical of 18th-century classicism;
- because of the 1852 extension in neoclassical style typical of the period;
- because of the 18th- and 19th-century interior stucco work;
- because of its functional-spatial relationship with other parts of the estate;
- Because of its distinctive location within landscape-style parkland.
(Source: National Cultural Heritage Agency/Ministry of Education, Culture and Science)