Kasteel, buitenplaats, Plein 1

English translation

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Description

Description

MAIN BUILDING (Baljuwhuis). The Baljuwhuis is located on the square in the old village centre of Wassenaar. The house was built in two phases. The oldest part was constructed in the years 1742-1745 on the orders of the bailiff of the lord of Wassenaar, Joan van Gybelant. It is a rectangular, cellared building of red brick, consisting of two storeys and an attic under a hipped roof with a running eaves gutter (originally with a box gutter), covered with smothered Dutch tiles. The front facade is three bays wide and furnished with slightly arched sash windows with Empire-style glazing bars in the ratio 4x4 (ground floor) and 4x2 (first floor) with a hardstone windowsill. In the hardstone plinth on the right side a cellar window is incorporated, fitted with grillwork. The corners of the facade are accentuated by slightly projecting pilasters; the whole is crowned by a simple cornice. The central section likewise projects slightly forward and is topped by the sculpted, painted coat of arms of Johan Hendrik, Count of Wassenaer van Obdam. Centrally in the central section is the entrance, consisting of a door with four-pane fanlight, set within a pilaster arrangement in Empire style. The door is connected with the sash window above it by a simple wooden frame with an intervening connecting piece. Before the door a hardstone flight of four steps. To the left and right of the steps a hardstone threshold across the full width of the 18th-century house. The threshold is bordered by a simple wrought-iron railing that also guides the steps to the entrance. In the eastern side facade centrally on the first floor a window as on the front and several smaller (ventilation) windows. On the rear side windows as on the front (however not arched), fitted with a wooden windowsill. On the piano nobile in the eastern bay a double casement door with a single fanlight. A wooden balcony with an adjoining wooden staircase provide access to the garden. At the level of the basement double casement windows with small glazing bars. Below the aforementioned staircase the service entrance. The extension on the west side of the house dates from 1895 and was realised by Wassenaar contractor G.J. van der Mark. This later section matches in terms of material and design the original building. On the front the extension has one storey under a flat roof, crowned by a simple gutter line and a decorative wooden balustrade. On the rear this section of the building is one storey higher, likewise under a flat roof on which two substantial chimneys. The extension is two bays wide and on both front and rear furnished with windows as in the original building with wooden windowsills. The western side facade of the 18th-century house largely adjoins the extension. Where this is not the case, above the flat on the front, the facade is blind. In the western side facade of the extension on the ground floor a door to the kitchen, flanked on the right by a window and on the first floor centrally one sash window as in the rear facade. The kitchen door provides via a brickwork staircase (XX) access to the garden.

The interior of the main building has a fairly well-preserved historical finish, which illustrates the occupancy and development history of the house since the time of construction. Not only is the original floor plan and layout virtually unchanged intact, but a considerable part of the original woodwork (doors, floors, panelling) and of the original fittings and hardware is still present. In addition, there are in various rooms marble and wooden chimney mantels with panelled brickwork and stucco ceilings, partly from the time of construction, partly from later building phases. In the hallway a grey-veined white marble floor and a marble plinth, furthermore symmetrically arranged side walls with on either side of the front door stuccoed rectangular niches with marble windowsill and at the other end of the hallway two panelled oak doors, the left one giving access to the hallway beyond. Opposite the front door an identical door with above it a marble memorial plaque with inscription in memory of the building patron Van Gybelant, placed there by order of Unico Willem Count of Wassenaer van Obdam. The stucco ceilings (hallways, stairwell and various rooms) are all decorated with a simple central motif and date from the 18th or 19th century. In the stairwell (east side of the house) an oak staircase with panelled wainscoting and simple balustrade from the time of construction, provided with decorative carving with rocaille motifs. In the basement among others a hallway, kitchen, wine cellar and store room; here among others with white-tiled walls, a built-in bed alcove, barrel-vaulted ceilings, a hardstone sink/washbasin with pump, internal shutters, cooking niche with large range hood and old tiled floors of various kinds (marble/hardstone, mosaic tiles with decorative border, red floor tiles).

Valuation

MAIN BUILDING (Baljuwhuis) is of general importance:

- Because of its age;

- Because of its development history;

- Because of the well-preserved architectural design;

- Because of the virtually original floor plan and layout;

- As a representative example of an 18th-century patrician house that was considerably extended at the end of the 19th century;

- Because of the well-preserved interior finishes from the 18th and 19th centuries, which illustrate the development and occupation history of the house;

- Because of its characteristic location within the park layout;

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