I want Hofwijck, as it is, I want Hofwijck, as it will be,
To make the foreigner see, and make the Hollander read
(Hofwijck, lines 25 and 26)
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I want Hofwijck, as it is, I want Hofwijck, as it will be,
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The Hofwijck StoryThis article, an adapted version of an essay by Kees van der Leer, offers you a brief history of Hofwijck. It tells the story of how Huygens carefully designed his country estate to be a paradise made in God's image. The story is available as a download for printing. This can also serve as a good starting point for writing a paper on Hofwijck and Huygens. You will find a print button on this page below the article.
When you stand before the Voorburg train station, your eye is naturally drawn along long rows of Spanish oaks in the direction of the Vliet waterway. In the distance stands the Hofwijck country house, a seventeenth-century cube with a pyramid-shaped roof rising high above the tranquil water of the surrounding pond. The murals (grisailles) appear from afar to be monumental statues, pondering the cycle of seasons in the garden. They have witnessed many generations of inhabitants and colourful guests, fickle love affairs and desperate loneliness. They have also had to watch helplessly as their domain was encroached upon by the railway dyke. Very few train travellers will realise that even the view from the station itself is historical. It stands where once the master builder Constantijn Huygens constructed a raised hill with a watchtower, from where one could overlook the garden and its design following the outlines of the human body. Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) was a versatile man; as well as being
an admired wit he was a poet and a gifted composer. He played many instruments
and was an arts connoisseur of note. He was also the architect of two
beautiful buildings and a garden that became the talk of the town. All
this of course was a mere sideline; a distinguished gentleman such as
himself could not professionally occupy himself with these affairs. Constantijn
was an able diplomat and the dedicated secretary of three consecutive
Orange stadhouders. On the 15th February, 1640, Constantijn spent the evening with the architect
Jacob van Campen in Haarlem. Was this perhaps where the decision was made
to put Vitruvius’ principles into practice, by outlining the human
body in the blueprint of the grounds? In a long court poem with the title
of Hofwijck, Constantijn described in detail how the estate came into
being thanks to the collaboration between Jacob van Campen and Pieter
Post. Nature itself determined the basic design of the estate. The ground
between Lijtwech and Heerwech turned out to be poor sandy soil. This therefore
was where the wild upper garden would have to be. The soil between Heerwech
and the Vliet turned out to be rich clay, and was destined to become the
tame garden. The house would be built right next to the Vliet and surrounded
by a pond, alike to a stone jug in a cool barrel of water. The house was designed as a cube of brickwork, rising up on a stone base, with a pyramid-shaped roof culminating in a square chimney and crowned with a beautiful piece of decorative ironwork. The grisailles painted on the flat walls between the symmetrically placed windows created the illusion of statues set in deep recesses, without disturbing the concept of the cube. Meanwhile a problem arose in the planting of the garden. The sandy soil of the upper garden turned out to be so bad that the newly planted oak trees died in droves. Constantijn interpreted this setback as the devil striving to prevent the return of paradise on earth. Pieter Post however sensibly advised to simply dig up the devilish soil and remove it. It was decided to use the sand to create a hillock with a ‘green cap’ of grass, wild flowers and daisies. This high hill also afforded a delightful view of the wide surroundings, reaching all the way to coast at Scheveningen. In early February 1642 Hofwijck had a festive opening celebration. It
was named Vitaulium in Latin and Hofwijck in Dutch, a fine pair of double
entendres. The word Hofwijck covers the meaning of a ‘place’
(wijck) with a ‘garden’ (hof) as well as a place where one
could ‘avoid’ (wijck) the ‘court’ (hof) of Orange.
Vitaulium is derived from vitae aula, the garden of life, also known as
the Garden of Eden with its tree of life. Moreover Vitaulium can also
be derived from vitruvii aula: the garden of Vitruvius. In its day Hofwijck was an utopia of hospitality, entertainment and reflection.
You could partake in archery at the foot of the mountain, pick fruits
in the orchard or ‘bowl’ on the lawn of the ‘bolbaen’
along the Vliet. There often was music and singing in the state room or
garden. Music was of such importance to Constantijn that in planning Hofwijck
he used sizes and proportions in the rooms that would optimise the sounds
of a string instrument. Near the bolbaen there was a jetty (uitzit) on
the Vliet river. This is where Constantijn would usually sit, alone or
with his guests, enjoying the view and the many ships that passed. A short family meeting resulted in the decision to let Christiaan, the
middle son, live at Hofwijck. Christiaan had gained considerable fame
in Europe at this time for his publications and discoveries in the fields
of mathematics, astronomy and physics. In December 1687 Christiaan wrote
in a letter to his brother that he thought it was a good idea to live
at Hofwijck: ‘to save on rent expenses […] and I also think,
if I build an addition to the house to enlarge it and place my library
here, I will be able to live here very pleasantly’.
In 1913 the renowned country estate once again faced the threat of demolition.
Various eminent figures set up the Hofwijck Society in order to ‘purchase
the house and grounds and return them to the state in which they appeared
at the time when they were inhabited by the famous Huygens family members’.
After one year the rescue operation did not seem to be faring too well.
The purchase sum was more difficult to raise than they had expected and
the seller was not willing to extend the purchase option term. In May
1914, in the nick of time, a sizeable donation was received from a distant
relative of Huygens who was living in Germany. Hofwijck could now be purchased
after all. The decision was made to restore to its original state not
only the house but also the remaining part of the garden. The addition
to the front of the house, assumed to be eighteenth-century, was taken
down. Due to disadvantageous financial circumstances however, it took
till 1927 for restoration of house and interior to be completed. After
that it took another twenty years before the statues and outdoor murals
once again graced the Hofwijck estate. On the 12th June,1928, the Huygens
Museum was opened in Hofwijck. During the restoration period various objects
with links to the Huygens family had been obtained. A special building
was built for the porter at the gate at the beginning of the old Lindelaan,
which had been restored to its old glory. |
On
the bridge to the house six statues stood, representing, as the grisailles
do, death and the transitory nature of all things. First four children,
representing the four seasons. After them came Hermes and Perseus. Hermes,
the god of travellers, accompanied the dying over the dark river of death
that flowed beneath the bridge. Constantijn frequently referred to sleeping
as his ‘daily death’. Next to Hermes stood, as was the habit
in garden art, Perseus. From Hermes he received the scythe with which
he slew the monster that threatened the maid Andromeda. On the bridge
of Hofwijck, Perseus symbolised the Princes of Orange who had rescued
the maid Holland from the Spanish monster. Designer Jacob van Campen was
famous in his era for this type of decoration.
In
the summer of 1688 Christiaan wrote that he had finished his library.
In the small observatory on the roof of the added structure, he placed
a large wooden telescope through which he and his venerable guests could
view the celestial bodies and Saturn, whose rings he had discovered and
made a study of. In 1695 Christiaan died in a boarding house on the Noordeinde
in The Hague, where he had rented a room to escape the cold and lonely
winter months at Hofwijck. He left his considerable collection of scientific
works that he had accumulated in his ‘Hofwijck cabinet’ to
the ‘academy or library of Leiden’.
The
new owner, Jacob des Tombe, had many of the trees at Hofwijck chopped
down, simply because it was financially profitable. The large leaden statues
were also sold. The house itself was initially treated more respectfully.
Nevertheless from 1840 on, the estate started going downhill. A fat-rendering
candle factory was built on the grounds of Hofwijck and its malodorous
smoke chased away the last songbirds, the last musical reminders of the
days of yore. In 1849 the final demise of Hofwijck seemed at hand: Hofwijck
was going to be auctioned off for demolition. However, salvation appeared
in the person of statesman Guillaume Groen van Pinksterer, who lived at
Voorburg’s estate Vreugd en Rust (Joy and Peace). He bought Hofwijck
because he felt that the memory of Huygens had to be preserved. When the
railway planned a line right through the garden of Hofwijck, he submitted
a sharply-worded objection. It was of no avail. The railway that ran diagonally
across the garden amputated a large piece of the garden body.