Hoofdgebouw

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

Description component 1: MAIN BUILDING, COUNTRY HOUSE OUDEGEIN.

A stately pavilion-shaped rectangular neoclassical country house from 1633, rising high from the moat, covered with a high roof of slates in the form of a tent roof with two storeys above a basement storey, built by the then owner Adriaan Ploos van Amstel, lord of Tienhoven, het Gein and Jutphaas. Ploos van Amstel built the house on the foundations of an older castle, and at the same time redesigned the park layout in Renaissance style, which has been partially preserved to the present day. House and park have formed a unity since 1633, which may have come about under the influence of Constantijn Huygens (and thereby under the influence of Prince Frederik Hendrik); Ploos van Amstel was closely befriended with Constantijn Huygens. In the basement storey the old 14th-century residential tower of the old castle is partially preserved, as evidenced by the 1.9 m thick walls and the presence of a heavy barrel vault (west side). The house was constructed under the influence of the Dutch neoclassicism then in vogue; the influence of Scamozzi is distinctly present in the straight sandstone entrance section surrounded by profiled moulding (south side) with cornice supported by volutes, which was designed after examples from his pattern books. In the coat-of-arms field in relief situated above the cornice, the coat of arms of the knights' estate. Against the east gable is a water step with a 17th-century oak access door to the kitchen; beside the step there was originally a dovecote. On the roof three striking, tall chimneys, closed off by a decorative wrought-iron crown piece with a ball (central chimney) and weathervane. The front and rear gables (south and north gables respectively) are divided into six and five window bays respectively. The wall piers on the front gable are of unequal width, which may perhaps be explained by the use of parts of the predecessor of the current house (the gable shows no seam however) or by the arrangement of the spaces inside. Originally the house was provided all around with cross windows with corbelled arches (bel-etage) and accolade arches (upper storey). Probably around 1801, when it came into the possession of Willem de Geer through inheritance, the house was modernised and the front, rear and the three bays wide left (west) gable acquired the current broad 15-pane sash windows (bel-etage) and 12-pane sash windows (upper storey) with transoms above; the current rear gable then acquired the current regular bay arrangement where broad wall piers on either side of the central window bay emphasise this bay visually and give this gable a symmetrical appearance. Presumably the windows on the rear were also then provided with the present-day shutters. The windows in the three bays wide right (east) gable were then closed off by the current blind recesses. The original three-light window on the right side of the front gable of the basement storey was then replaced by the current two 6-pane sash windows. The rear gable acquired five 6-pane windows situated on the bays in the basement storey. In place of the simple drawbridge came the current fixed wooden bridge of five arches on rusticated piers with a service bridge situated beneath it; at this time the current service entrance was also made in the basement storey. The upper deck is preceded by a hard stone step of 8 profiled treads. Step and upper bridge were provided at this time with the current simple wrought-iron balustrade. The roof dormers (three on the front, a single one on the central bay on the rear and right side and three on the left side) date in origin from the building period of the house and consist of a variant derived from a monastery window with a single window frame fitted with shutters and an underwindow (twice 6-pane opening) above which is a 12-pane fanlight. The dormers are covered by a roof of hipped form covered with slates with three-sided overhang on the front. The smaller and higher-situated roof dormer on the left side has a monastery window with 4-pane under- and over-window. In 1873 the house was restored; at that time a number of internal alterations were made. One hundred years later, in 1971, the house was restored again. Interior: in the kitchen (basement storey, east side) a beam ceiling and tiled floor from the building period. On the bel-etage on the left side the hall with a substantial 17th-century fireplace with columns and half-columns in red-white veined marble. The roof truss structure consists of six oak joists with curved brackets. From the time of Willem de Geer (owner from 1801 to 1831) date the four oval stucco dessus-de-portes in the hall depicting the four seasons. At that time two low grey and black marble fireplaces were placed on the upper storey in simple late Empire design. During the restoration in 1873 the stucco ceiling with floral motifs in the hall was applied. At that time the staircase, which was probably originally behind the hall, was moved to the right front of the house.

Valuation

The main building is of general importance from a cultural-historical perspective:

- on account of its age;

- on account of its integrity;

- on account of its beauty;

- as an intact preserved example of a main building of a Utrecht knights' estate constructed under the influence of Dutch neoclassicism from the first half of the 17th century;

- on account of its integration with the originally 17th-century infrastructure of the park and hereby as an intact preserved and rare expression of the ideology from the first half of the 17th century regarding the architecture of an ensemble of a knightly house and park.