Historische aanleg, Nijenhuizerlaan bij 11

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

Component 3

Description

HISTORIC GARDEN AND PARK LAYOUT belonging to the country estate Nijenhuis. The historic park layout around the Nijenhuis forms part of the characteristic Twente farmstead or field-pattern landscape, which is characterised by arable land and pastures bordered by trees or hedges, sometimes situated on elevated ground, and in which scattered farmsteads provide a rustic accent. The landscape character of the layout around the Nijenhuis is determined to a large extent by these characteristic agricultural lands and associated farmsteads, interspersed with deciduous woodland and meandering watercourses. Together these elements form a particularly attractive and varied landscape, which presents itself differently from the various walking paths. Various sight-lines and views connect the centrally located house with the surrounding landscape and vice versa. As such, the park of the Nijenhuis is a good example of an early 19th-century landscape park, in which the rural beauty of the surroundings was the guiding principle for the design and was optimally exploited. For the preservation of the landscape and (cultural) historical values of the layout it is therefore important that the surrounding small-scale field-pattern landscape, which has changed little since 1820 (map at the house), remains in its current form. The various views of the surrounding landscape, as well as the alternation of open (arable and pasture land) and enclosed (woodland) spaces, are inseparable from the layout.

Existing formal structures, including various avenues, were incorporated into the landscape layout. Thus straight avenues mark the north-eastern boundary of the estate and a long formal sight-line and access avenue extends across the landscape layout, in the axis of the house, from the forecourt to the village of Diepenheim. Originally this avenue was shorter, but after the acquisition of the country estate Peckedam situated further west by the owner of the Nijenhuis, the avenue was extended over the homestead of this property to the village (circa 1815).

The asphalted avenue crosses the meandering Molenbeek along the way, which since time immemorial has cut through the park from north to south and which as a defining element has also given direction to the landscape layout. The watercourse lies embedded in a varied early landscape serpentine woodland with a partly original timber stand. Also to the north of the house lie several defining landscape water features. The ditch which bounds the 'back garden' in a spacious curve passes into a substantial landscape pond to the north of the homestead. Two romantically-designed landscape bathing ponds situated further to the north are also fed by this ditch. Originally there was a bathing house at these bathing ponds, which has disappeared over time. The bathing ponds are situated on a walking route which leads north from the house. Via this route the family burial ground of the Schimmelpennincks is visited first to the north-east of the homestead. Past the northerly bathing ponds, heading south, the walker passes to the north-west of the homestead the former ice house. This is currently (2001) being restored using modern materials, only the hardstone steps leading down are original. For this reason the ice house is of subsidiary importance as a separate element for protection purposes. The characteristic relief of the ice house in the landscape and the original function closely connected with it do however give the park added value. Further south, but still to the north-west of the homestead, lies a tennis court with a rustic tennis house from the early 20th century. The path ultimately ends at the access avenue a short distance from the gate to the forecourt.

On the other side (south side) of the access avenue, between the homestead and the weir in the Molenbeek situated further west, lies the former kitchen garden with orangery, cold frames, grape house and tool shed. The kitchen garden, like the avenue and the serpentine woodland, is a remnant of the 18th-century layout and is nowadays used as a nursery. The structures in the kitchen garden, as well as the cold frames, are 19th-century.

The core of the country estate is formed by the moated homestead where the main building and service buildings are arranged in the traditional manner around the forecourt. The forecourt is accessible via a dam in the moat and a wrought iron access gate. The dam is fitted with a paved bridge deck of yellow clinker bricks and edged with a hardstone border. The gate comes from the Beemster region and was installed at the Nijenhuis around 1900 to replace a low Empire-style gate. The formal layout of the forecourt was designed in 1888 by the young garden and landscape architect Hugo Poortman. The gravel-covered courtyard has a central rectangular bed with rounded corners, seeded with grass, on which stands an ornamental sandstone garden urn on a hardstone plinth. Between this bed and the access gate lies a smaller second bed with in the middle a marble statue of a putto with wild boar on an oval concrete-like plinth. To the left and right in front of the house a white painted wooden garden bench in a niche of box.

Lodewijk Schimmelpenninck, the then owner of the Nijenhuis, engaged Poortman for a total design which besides the forecourt also encompassed the moat structure and the terrain behind the house. The moat was diverted and re-excavated beside and behind the house in formal style. The mortared quay walls with hardstone coping accentuate the geometric edging. On the rear side, in connection with Poortman's plans, a raised terrace was constructed adjoining the central section of the house with a robust sandstone balustrade. Around this terrace Poortman created a formal garden with box hedges. The space for this garden was created by diverting the moat in an easterly direction. On the east side the moat was terminated in a mirror-arch form. On the inward and outward curving corners of the mirror arch and further at regular intervals, raised hardstone tiles were placed on the quay wall. At the level of the four corner points of the mirror arch these tiles serve as a base for weathered concrete-like urns, decorated with garlands. Originally shell-shaped vases on a pedestal were placed at these four points. These vases are nowadays without pedestals on the corners of the terrace balustrade.

The terrace is connected by means of a staircase in the axis of the house with the lower formal garden. The robustly designed balustrade of the terrace also accompanies the staircase. On the beginning balusters stand blue glazed chalice-shaped vases from France, decorated with medallions and putti. The vases were already at the country estate before Poortman's involvement. The current location was however designed by him. The bridge over the moat which provides access to the rear garden lies in the same line as the staircase. The axis is terminated by a small bed on the east side of the bridge with a sundial on a hardstone plinth in the middle. Lodewijk Schimmelpenninck was closely involved in the garden design and it is therefore at his explicit request that the terrain behind the house was given a landscape treatment. In doing this Poortman had to take into account that: 'There should always be a free view from the house of the cornfield and the large oak tree as well as of the farmstead "Den Enk", (also as they grow further)'. Thus a garden was created which naturally transitions into the surrounding landscape, separated from it only by an inconspicuous ditch, which encloses the terrain in a spacious curve. Between the moat and the aforementioned ditch stretches a lawn. Varied groups of deciduous and coniferous trees with an undergrowth of shrubs and ivy plants enliven the appearance (species recorded in the management plan PHB).

Of the original path pattern of Poortman there remain a central circular walk and a loop-shaped walk in the southern arm of the layout. These walks connect with walking paths to other parts of the layout, among others to the northerly bathing ponds (described above). The central walk leads past a sundial (18th-century or older) fished out of the moat on a hardstone plinth of more recent date. A set of parabola-shaped rose arches, which was in storage, has been put back into use by the current owners and now stands in the east of the layout. From the house there are sight-lines projected in northerly, easterly (the view desired by Schimmelpenninck) and south-easterly directions, which are accompanied and framed by the aforementioned tree groups, which for that matter were partly replanted in the last quarter of the 20th century in the spirit of Poortman's original design.

Valuation

The HISTORIC GARDEN AND PARK LAYOUT belonging to the country estate Nijenhuis is of general importance:

- because of the moat around the castle, which is a characteristic component of the original 17th-century layout and which received its present geometric form according to a design by Poortman from 1888-1889;

- because of the access bridge with gate and the forecourt, which are characteristic components of the original 17th-century layout;

- because of the long formal access and sight avenue from the castle in a westerly direction;

- because of the still recognisable 18th-century kitchen garden and the associated 19th-century structures, cold frames and grape house;

- because of the former ice house, as a characteristic component of the layout;

- because of the presence of a timber stand which partly dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries;

- because of the early landscape walk woodland along the Molenbeek;

- because of the integration of the existing agricultural structure (arable and pasture lands intersected by wood banks, beech hedges and ditches) into the landscape layout;

- because of the integration of existing watercourse systems into the landscape layout, as well as because of the landscaping of some of these watercourses;

- as a representative and high-quality example from the oeuvre of Hugo Poortman;

- because of the numerous well-preserved garden ornaments, which are closely connected with Poortman's layout;

- because of the presence of a family burial ground;

- because of the presence of a former tennis court and tennis house as a characteristic component of the early 20th-century country estate;

- because of the functional-spatial coherence with the other components of the country estate;

- because of the defining landscape and cultural historical value of the estate for the surroundings of Diepenheim.