Historische aanleg, Rijksstraatweg bij 18

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

HISTORIC GARDEN AND PARK LAYOUT. Several elements from the late 17th century and 18th century of the historic garden and park layout of Sterreschans have been preserved. The gently curved Vecht bank forms the original eastern boundary of Sterreschans. The rectangular kitchen garden located to the north of the house has been visible on the oldest maps of the region since the establishment of the country estate (ca. 1688); in the course of the 20th century the northern half came to Rupelmonde and the division is marked by a wooden fence. The southern watercourse and the straight canal in its extension on the other (west) side of the Rijksstraatweg has since time immemorial been the southern boundary of Sterreschans and the current over-park. The separation between both park sections has since time immemorial been formed by the Rijksstraatweg. On the Topographic and Military map from 1850 it can be seen that from the house there was a clear view onto the polder landscape lying on the other side of the Vecht, a situation that has been largely preserved to the present day; perhaps this clear view indicates the existence of a servitude. Presumably shortly after 1815, the year in which the wealthy and erudite Amsterdam cloth merchant Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk acquired Sterreschans and provided the house with a classicistic front and rear facade (garden facade, later modified in the 19th century), a landscape-style park layout was created, which occupied the terrain around the house and the over-park. This layout, with a portion of its planting of summer oak, beech, horse chestnut, acacia, linden, ash and walnut, has been largely preserved and consists among other things of a spacious oval-shaped driveway on the west side of the house with on either side a pattern of winding paths and on the north side a meandering pond surrounded by embankments. Around 1920 the view of the house from the driveway at the level of the entrance projected perpendicular to the west facade on the Rijksstraatweg was blocked with yew to increase the privacy of the residents of Sterreschans. The layout of the over-park forms a compositional whole with the park section around the house. Although both parks are separated from each other by the Rijksstraatweg, the walking paths flow into each other and form compositionally and in terms of layout a totality. From an iconological point of view, the over-park has another significance that the first-mentioned park section lacks. Central to this layout is the hall-house-shaped farmhouse from the second half of the 18th century. On the north side lies a meadow, which on the northeast and east sides is bordered by a wooded strip with winding paths. South of the farmhouse a wooded layout in landscape style with as main motif an irregularly running pond complex with its meandering bank run and an island, surrounded by embankments and winding paths. As such, the over-park forms a 'ferme ornée', whereby the farmhouse with its adjoining meadow, path structure, wooded and water section is a conscious realization of contemporary romantic and aesthetic views on the picturesque quality of the farm enterprise in an ideal 'natural' setting and on the farm enterprise as a morally uplifting and close to 'nature' standing enterprise. In 1942 a strip on the west side of the over-park was sacrificed to the construction and widening of respectively the Merwede Canal and the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal. Part of the pond complex and a wooded strip with winding path were lost then. On the northeast side lies the so-called over-place of Rupelmonde, which in the context of a voluntary land consolidation in 1942 was added to Sterreschans. The layout of this section is as follows. To the northeast of a winding avenue with a hedgerow from around 1820 the so-called Hobbelaan, accompanied on both sides by a ditch. The Hobbelaan begins at the road and formerly ran as a church path through to Ter Aa. In the ditch to the north of this church path a brick weir. Adjacent a 'pleasure grove' and the former kitchen garden. Since 1942 this section has been crossed by a transverse avenue which via a bridge leads onto a meadow. The bridge lies over an elongated and fairly broad pond (ca 1850). On the northeast side the terrain is closed off with a straight avenue from 1760, planted with lindens, originally with beech and later horse chestnuts and a ditch. No concrete evidence has been found to date that would justify attributing the landscape-style layout of Sterreschans to a particular garden architect. Around 1920 the driveway to the coach house adjoining the gardener's dwelling and stone barn, of which a branch leads to the main building, was relocated in a southern direction to its current straight run, whereby also the west and south boundary of the kitchen garden was straightened. Originally this driveway began on the Rijksstraatweg at the level of the current wooden fence, which divides the kitchen garden in two; this driveway, which bordered the west and south boundary of the kitchen garden, had a curved run and formed part of the landscape-style layout.