Gunterstein

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

MAIN BUILDING (Gunterstein). A wholly moated block-shaped building on an almost square ground plan constructed of brick and consisting of a basement, two storeys and an attic. The corners are finished with rusticated pilasters. The attic storey is formed by a cornice with triglyphs and metopes. The hipped roof covered with Dutch tiles (originally with a running gutter) is crowned by a high square brick chimney-like tower with double corner pilasters between which are brick round-arch recesses. In each recess stands a female figure placed on a plinth, representing the four seasons. Against the front facade two projecting short side wings under a flat roof enclosing a small cour d'honneur. The main entrance is located between the two side wings and consists of a double door with a round fanlight flanked by columns carrying a balcony. Above the door stands the construction year in Roman numerals (1681). On the corners of the balcony balustrade are two figures (putti). The double glazed balcony doors with shutters are crowned by a triangular pediment above which the coat of arms of the Poulle family is placed. The side wings, which were originally one storey high, were raised with an additional storey in the eighteenth century. The arrangement of the facade consists of a six-pane window with round fanlight on the ground floor and a six-pane window on the first storey. The structure of the south and north sides consists of two square basement windows placed side by side (single-light) above which a four-pane window with round fanlight on the ground floor and a round brick recess on the first storey. The south and north facades each have six window bays consisting of two square basement windows placed side by side, some of which are blind, and nineteenth-century six-pane sash windows with blinds on the ground floor and on the first storey. In the north facade the left window bay is bricked up and a round window has been inserted. The rear facade consists of three window bays with the same structure as the bays of the side facades. In the middle an oval projection of four Doric columns standing on a partly brick partly natural stone platform providing access to the basement storey. The columns carry a round balcony with balustrade. The glazed balcony doors with round fanlight are crowned by a stone broken round pediment with the coat of arms of the Gunter family. In the early nineteenth century an older rectangular balcony was replaced by this round projection. In the north-west wall below the water level a marble plaque is set with the inscription 'Pieter Poulle son of Benjamin Poulle laid the foundation stone on the 1st November 1680 being on this day three years old'. In the basement seventeenth-century brick cross vaults, wooden beam ceiling and a sixteenth-century barrel vault. In the INTERIOR of particular importance are the well-preserved seventeenth-century ground plan consisting of a long passage in the middle (east-west) along which rooms are located on either side. In the passage above the doorways segment-shaped recesses with busts of Roman emperors, on the first storey circular recesses with busts of female figures. Seventeenth-century Gobelin room with tapestries from the workshop of Maximiliaan van der Gucht in Delft on which the house is depicted. In this room a marble mantelpiece with as overmantel a painting by D. van der Plas (1683) on which Magdalena Poulle is depicted with her little cousin Pieter, who is holding a drawing of the house and garden layout. The design of door frames, wall panelling, window frames etc. partly after the design of Dortsman.

Valuation

MAIN BUILDING of general importance:

- because of the well-preserved exterior and partially present interior of the 17th-century house in classical style, presumably after the design of the architect Dortsman;

- because of the 17th-century spatial arrangement and decoration of the interior with the special 17th-century Gobelin room;

- because of the characteristic location within the historic garden and park layout;

- because of the functional-spatial relationship with the other components of the country estate.