Villa Constance

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

Introduction

Villa Constance. Entirely detached corner building that was built in 1888, in both eclectic and neo-renaissance forms, as a TOWNHOUSE to the design of architect H.R. Hendriks, for a total building cost of f.39,700,-, for the margarine manufacturer Arnold van den Bergh (1857-1932). The villa was named after his daughter Constance, born in 1888. Van den Bergh lived in the villa only briefly and sold the building in 1891 to Arnold Jurgens (1842-1912), who named the villa after his wife Johanna. From 1899 it housed a girls' boarding school run by the French convent sisters "Religieuses filles de Notre Dame". From 1910 to 1919 the villa was inhabited again, after which from 1929 to 1974 it served as town hall for Oss. Subsequently the villa acquired its present function as the Jan Cunen museum. The villa has a very strong architectural and socio-economic coherence with numbers 61 and 63, but is the largest and most richly executed of these three villas. The conservatory on the west side and the extension on the south side date from the 1970s and 1980s and fall outside the protection afforded by the national government.

Description

Large, richly detailed corner building of two-and-a-half storeys on a roughly square ground plan with basement and attic storeys. Striking corner solution with octagonal tower with carillon, clockwork and finial top. The tower is covered with slates in Rhenish laying. The building apparently consists of different building volumes under hipped roofs with slate in Maas laying with a central flat roof. In each of the hipped roofs are small dormer windows with wooden surrounds. In particular on the western and southern sides of the villa, there was once an extensive garden. In the 1980s this became a small urban park with its own layout, with various separate sculptures and a music kiosk. The main mass of the building stands on a basement storey with rusticated cemented plinth. The facades are constructed in orange pressed brick and are richly ornamented with various natural stone elements such as: bands, mouldings, window surround frames, diamond ornaments, keystones, consoles and pirons. Monumental entrance portal on square ground plan with free-standing entrance pillars and balcony balusters. The portal has a cross-ribbed vault with natural stone moulded stones. A staircase with hard stone steps leads to the round-arched entrance, which is fitted with a richly decorated panelled door with classical motifs. This door has a round-arched fanlight with very fine tracery and stained glass. Below the gutter line of the left section of the front facade is a coloured tile panel in the form of a facade inscription "Villa Constance anno 1888". The roof termination of the apparently different building volumes is executed in gabled roofs which, although all different in size, have motifs derived from the Dutch seventeenth century. The decoration consists of among other things: claw pieces, pediments and pirons. Internally, the building, particularly on the ground floor, is very richly ornamented. The layout and ornamentation are in this section still almost entirely preserved. Via the front entrance, the white marble staircase and the draught doors decorated with stylistic motifs, one enters the large central hall whose floor is laid with parquet. The walls and door surrounds are very exuberantly decorated in stylistic motifs with pilasters, pediments, mouldings, drops and pirons. Particularly remarkable are the rich reliefs of pressed cardboard in the arch soffits above and beside the entrances. These depict among other things putti and female portraits. The reliefs have been given a painted imitation-marble finish. In the rooms to the north of the central hall, the ornamentation is also largely intact. Notable here are the rich marble fireplaces, the wooden wainscoting and the stucco ceilings with their original polychromy. On the south side of the hall are two rooms en suite with both very rich wooden wainscoting and wooden ceiling covering with imitation stucco motifs. The basement storey is accessible via an entrance on the north side and via the (modern) lift and staircase from the central hall. Detailing and ornamentation are considerably more restrained here than on the ground floor. The rooms nowadays serve primarily office and museum functions. The central staircase has finely worked stair balusters on the ground floor. The light admission is provided by a large, lightly arched window on the upper floor with coloured stained glass and by a light dome above the stairs on wooden consoles. Although the layout on the upper floor is still largely authentic, there have been some wall openings. The rooms serve as exhibition space. The attic storey was converted to office space in 1997.

Valuation

The villa, as a manufacturer's villa, is of general cultural-historical significance as a particular expression of a socio-economic development. The villa has architectural-historical significance because of the special use of materials and the ornamentation and the particular coherence between exterior and interior. The villa is of general significance because of the building and socio-economic coherence with numbers 63 and 65. The villa has significance because of the architectural integrity of exterior and interior. The villa is of general significance because of the rarity of the use of materials and the ornamentation.