Fruitmuur

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

Concrete FRUIT WALL (complex component 8) located in the kitchen garden to the southeast of the hunting lodge and built around 1928 for the cultivation of espalier fruit. This is a rare example of such a type of wall in the twentieth century, executed in concrete, a material scarcely applied in Dutch fruit walls. The originally presumably L-shaped wall now consists of two separate walls arranged at right angles to each other. The break in the corner presumably resulted from the construction of a path. The wall is in a neglected state. The flat beds that originally lay at the foot of the fruit wall have disappeared.

Description

The FRUIT WALL currently consists of two straight wall sections arranged at a right angle to each other. The longer northern wall runs lengthwise along the sunken garden from east to west and measures approximately 70 metres. The shorter eastern wall runs from south to north and is approximately 26 metres long. Both northeastern ends of the walls are crumbled, indicating that the walls were originally longer and presumably joined onto each other. The walls are articulated by reinforced concrete pillars, finished at the corners with squared edges and pyramidal caps. Between these are concrete walls with slightly projecting concrete string courses. The northern wall currently has 33 bays in this way and the shorter wall is 14 bays long. The pillars and walls are executed with a core of reinforced concrete and finished on the exterior with a flat cement layer. On the south side there are hooks against the pillars; on the north side, eyes are fastened in the wall. The walls are damaged heavily and less heavily in various places.

Valuation

The FRUIT WALL built around 1928 at the hunting lodge Mookerheide has (garden) architecture-historical and typological value as a rare example of a lime wall for growing fruit, executed in reinforced concrete from the first quarter of the twentieth century. The wall has cultural-historical value as a particular expression of a technical and cultural development, namely the experimentation with the cultivation of exotic fruit species. Fruit walls are particularly found in vegetable gardens of castles and historic country estates. The wall has ensemble value as a functional component of the Mookerheide estate and forms with the nearby peach greenhouse, flower greenhouse and sunken garden an important visual and historical unity. On the basis of these values, the fruit wall is of general interest.