Huis ter Nieuwburg or Huis ter Nieuburch ("House at New Borough") was a

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

Rijswijk Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was in , and it has an area of , of which is water. The municipality also includes th ...

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

. The symmetrical French Classicist building was probably designed by the Dutch architect Jacob van Campen together with Constantin Huygens and the prince himself. According to Slothouwer the designs were carried out by Arent van's Gravesande who was replaced by the French architect

Simon de la Vallée Simon de la Vallée (1590–1642) was a French-Swedish architect. The first architect in Sweden to have received formal academic training, he created the Swedish school of architecture. Biography Born in Paris, he was the son of Marin de la Val ...

in 1634. The palace was built between 1630 and 1636 for stadtholder

Prince Frederick Henry Frederick Henry ( nl, Frederik Hendrik; 29 January 1584 – 14 March 1647) was the sovereign prince of Orange and stadtholder of County of Holland, Holland, County of Zeeland, Zeeland, Lordship of Utrecht, Utrecht, Guelders, Lordship of Overijss ...

. The palace with gardens was the

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

of the

Princes of Orange Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if the holder is female) is a title originally associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by sovereigns in the Netherlands. The title ...

for years, and it was used for the peace negotiations resulting in the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697. After the death of Prince William III in 1702, the palace was inherited by the

Kings of Prussia The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman C ...

, until it was given back to the Princes of Orange by King Frederick II. The gardens of the palace were formal French Renaissance gardens constructed in 1636. In front of the palace were trees and ''

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

s'' enclosed by walls. Behind the palace was a larger garden with four rectangular

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

s. The building was demolished in 1790 after years of neglect. At present, the area is

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

known as the Rijswijkse Bos. The only reminders of the palace are two of the ponds and an

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...

, the

Needle of Rijswijk The Needle of Ryswick or Rijswijk ( nl, Naald van Rijswijk) is an obelisk in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, commemorating the Treaty of Ryswick (September 1697). The monument is at the location of the Huis ter Nieuwburg, the palace where the peace tre ...

, commemorating the peace treaty.

Building

In 1630, stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange bought the old ''Huis ter Nieuwburg'' from Philibert Vernatti for ƒ30,000 (

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

13,613). The house was located in the Plaspolder, a

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed # Flood plains s ...

in the village

, in between the cities

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

and

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

. At that time, The Hague was the political center of the

where the States-General assembled, and Delft was the city where Prince Frederick Henry was born and where his father

William the Silent William the Silent (24 April 153310 July 1584), also known as William the Taciturn (translated from nl, Willem de Zwijger), or, more commonly in the Netherlands, William of Orange ( nl, Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch Re ...

had his residence and was assassinated and buried in 1584. Between 1630 and 1632, the Prince of Orange bought more land and two houses in the area surrounding the house in order to build a new

on the location of Vernatti's old house. The project of the new ''Huis ter Nieuwburg'' was

tendered Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agency buys goods or servi ...

in 1630. The first pavilions of the palace were finished in 1632 and its

roof A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temper ...

was completed in 1636. During his life, Prince Frederick Henry had built large houses in the latest styles in architecture and by the best available architects. It is probable that the French architect

had helped to carry out designs of this palace and its interiors. The symmetrical building was designed in the architectural style of

French Classicism 17th-century French literature was written throughout the ''Grand Siècle'' of France, spanning the reigns of Henry IV of France, the Regency of Marie de Medici, Louis XIII of France, the Regency of Anne of Austria (and the civil war called the F ...

. The plan of the large building also reflects the new ideas from the villa buildings of Andrea Palladio who influenced architects like van Jacob van Campen, Pieter Post and Pilip Vingboons. The '' corps de logis'' with the main chambers of the palace was positioned on the axis of symmetry.

Illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...

by Jan van Vianen from 1697. At the back of the ''corps de logis'' was a lodge looking out on the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft through a corridor along the axis in the garden. In this church is the

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

of his father William the Silent and the

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

where Prince Frederick Henry's parents, brother, and two daughters were buried at the time the palace was built. Both on the east and the west side of the ''corps de logis'' is a wing,

perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

to the axis, with a pavilion at the end.

Gardens

The geometric Late Renaissance gardens and ponds were constructed by 1636. They were carried out by André Mollet, son of the famous French garden architect Claude Mollet who served the French kings Henry IV and Louis XIII. They were illustrated as they had become fully developed and matured in Jan van Vianen's engraving after Petrus Schenck, which records the grand diplomatic gathering that led to the Treaty of Ryswick, signed in the house. The entire garden was surrounded by a rectangle of canals that drained the ground and formed the equivalent of a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

; around its inner banks

allée In landscaping, an avenue (from the French), alameda (from the Portuguese and Spanish), or allée (from the French), is traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side, which is used, as its La ...

s of trees isolated the pleasure grounds from the featureless agricultural landscape outside. Entry was across one of three bridges and through a formal woodland or ''bocage'', through which three drives were pierced: the central one led through a free-standing Doric portal—guarded by sentry-boxes on this occasion—that was centred on a pedimented central gate in the mock-battlemented wall that enclosed the paved and cobbled forecourt. Right and left of this axial entrance, reserved during the treaty negotiations for the Mediator, were matching unemphasised entrances—perhaps opened in the walling for the occasion—destined, as the engraving's legend specifies, for the French representatives on the right and for those of the Allies on the left; clearly, this will have avoided tense protocol confrontations over which coach would enter the '' cour d'honneur'' first. The north front of the ''Huis'' with its paired corner pavilions was separated from the forecourt by a low

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

d terrace that created a privileged zone that protected the parade rooms from the immediate clatter of the courtyard and the inconvenient leavings of horses. For the duration of the negotiations, temporary brick walls had been erected to divide the entrance court from its flanking

gardens; in ordinary times, openings in the terrace balustrade and a few steps gave direct access to these gardens, where fruit trees were espaliered against the brick walls. The central axis continued through the central rooms of the '' corps de logis'' and was extended as a wide gravelled walk down the axis of the pleasure grounds, which it divided symmetrically on either side; at the far end, the enclosing narrow band of trees drew back in a semi-circular

exedra An exedra (plural: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek sense (''ἐξέδρα'', a seat out of d ...

that parted at the center to afford a view of the church steeple of

on the horizon, centred on the garden axis. The grounds thus enclosed and divided featured a symmetrical suite of six parterres that were planted—rather than with the clipped patterns relieved with colored gravel of Le Nôtre's Garden à la française manner—as formal '' bosquets'' of trees laid out quincunx-fashion and separated by wide gravelled walks. In the four outer corners of the grounds that were articulated by these shady sections were four rectangular ponds, the ''vijvers'' of which two survive today. At the outside front corners were a pair of mock fortifications with corner bastions all in tightly-clipped evergreens, entered by arched doorways. Two separate gardens enclosed by brick walls extended east and west of the end pavilions. The eastward one was planted with evergreens surrounding a circular central rockwork fountain, from which is derived its name ''De Rots'', "The Rockery". The westward one was the ''De Meloen Tuin'', the melon garden.

Owners and tenants

The palace was built as a country house and used by the Princes of Orange, the

stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

s of six of the seven provinces of the

, and the de facto rulers of the country. In 1697, the palace was used for the negotiations that lead to the Treaty of Ryswick. The treaty settled the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

between France and the Grand Alliance of England, Spain, the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

and the Dutch Republic. After the death of King William III of England, who was also the Prince of Orange, the house was under the supervision of the ''Nassause Domeinraad'' (English: "Domain Council of Nassau") from 1702 to 1732. After the inheritance of King William III was settled, the palace became the property of King Frederick William I of Prussia in 1732. His successor, King Frederick II of Prussia, gave the palace back to the Princes of Orange, to Prince William IV, as an act of friendship. In 1753, the palace was rented to Count Golofkin, ambassador for Tsarina Anna of Russia.

Demolition

In 1789, the architect P.W. Schonk advised Prince William V to demolish the palace, because it had been neglected for years. Also he advised that the money raised by selling properties and

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

be used for a monument for the Treaty of Ryswick. Following this advice, the palace was demolished in 1790 and the stables and the coach-house were sold in 1793. The Needle of Rijswijk was built in 1792 to 1794 to commemorate the peace treaty. At present, the area around the obelisk is woodland known as the Rijswijkse Bos, which is open to the public. The only other reminders of ''Huis ter Nieuwburg'' are two rectangular ponds from the French gardens, now enclosed in woodland. Rijswijk Museum has

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

s, and

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

s relating to the Treaty of Ryswick and

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

s of the palace in its collection.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huis Ter Nieuwburg Gardens in the Netherlands Palaces in the Netherlands Royal residences in the Netherlands Demolished buildings and structures in the Netherlands Baroque architecture in the Netherlands Buildings and structures in Rijswijk Houses completed in 1636 Renaissance gardens Landscape design history 1636 establishments in the Dutch Republic Buildings and structures demolished in 1790