Molecaten

English translation

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Description

Description of component 1:

HOUS MOLECATEN. Originally dating back to the first half of the 16th century, a reinforced house constructed in red brick on a rectangular ground plan, under a hipped roof covered with Old Dutch tiles. In the basement of the house the ground plan of the oldest house, which measured 15 x 7 metres, remains recognisable. The barrel vault in the basement dates from the first half of the 16th century, as does the masonry up to the top of the windows in the north gable. In the 16th century the house was provided with corner towers, whereby the towers on the south-west and south-east sides stood away a little from the house and were probably connected to the house by means of a wall. In 1629 the house was destroyed by Spanish troops. In 1646 the owner Johan van Keppel had the destroyed house repaired and made a number of changes. The house was heightened by one storey and the towers on the north-east and north-west sides were likewise raised higher. A second renovation followed in the years 1650-1675, in which the main building extended to the rear with a large room more than doubling in size and whereby the rear gable came to lie parallel to the gables of the previously freestanding towers on the south-east and south-west corner. The aforementioned towers were heightened, the space between the towers in the side gables was straightened, thereby creating more or less the rectangular building block which has determined the appearance of the house Molecaten to the present day, but covered under different roof structures. This renovation probably took place before the death of Johan van Keppel in 1667. Until the 19th century the house, which on the north side was preceded by a walled house plot and before it the forecourt closed off by service buildings and a gate building, remained more or less unaltered. In the years 1824 and 1825 the house was renovated on the instructions of the then owner Robbert August van Heeckeren and remodelled in a neoclassical style. The roofs of the four turrets were demolished, the east and west gables were raised, and the house was entirely covered by a surrounding gabled roof with gabled roofs and box gutters in between. The windows were enlarged and replaced by the present Empire sash windows with venetian blinds (now stored). The present layout of the bel-étage also came into being with a centrally positioned hallway with rooms on either side. The house was provided with an ochre-yellow coloured shell limestone plaster coat. Furthermore, the walls around the house plot were demolished, as were the outbuildings and the gate building on the forecourt, whereby the house on the front side acquired the appearance of a country house situated freely in the open. In 1955 the house was restored under the direction of restoration architect E.A. Canneman. In this restoration the gabled roofs which were located between the surrounding hipped roof were demolished and the roof was changed to the present hipped roof. The stepped gable coping with small bell turret, erected in 1824-1825 was demolished and replaced by the present pediment. In the tympanum the coat of arms of the Van Heeckeren family surrounded by silver scallop shells from the coat of arms of the Van Keppels was placed. The small bell turret was moved to the roof ridge. A further restoration took place in 1963-1964 when the house was unplastered. The hard stone portal with staircase of nine steps centrally on the front (north) gable dates originally to the 17th century and was modified in 1824-1825 and in 1994. On the front of the staircase stand two plinths with coat-of-arms bearing lions with the arms of the Van Heeckeren and Westerholt families, presumably placed here in 1824-1825. On the right plinth the stone with the date of the rebuilding of the house in 1646. The entrance consists of a carved double entrance door with fanlight with spoke bars, set in moulding and closed off by a cornice. On either side three two-pane windows at basement level and three Empire six-pane sash windows on the ground floor. On the upper floor seven Empire six-pane sash windows. Running around the house on the remaining gables also Empire multi-pane sash windows. In the gables blocked bands above the windows of the bel-étage and traces of former stone ornamentations, including the blocked relieving arches in the basement floor. On the four roof ridge corners a square chimney under a cap. The interior is, like the exterior, adapted over time, whereby the original decorative components such as fireplaces and ceilings, even stairs and floors, have mostly disappeared or been radically altered. The basement is covered with groined vaults. The central section is spanned by a barrel vault and subdivided into three rooms. The rest of the interior is the result of renovations in 1957, 1973 and 1977.

Valuation The HUIS MOLECATEN, belonging to the historic country estate Molecaten, is of general cultural-historical importance

* because of its age;

* because of its integrity;

* as an example of a 16th-century reinforced house remodelled in the 17th and 19th centuries in a classical style;

* because of its very high ensemble value