Why Zeist Castle is a royal surprise?

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Our 2nd castle visit of  2024 took place on January 6th. On a rather grey
Saturday we visited Slot Zeist in The Netherlands.







Slot Zeist is a castle built in the 17th. century in Zeist, near Utrecht in 
The Netherlands. We travelled from The Hague to Utrecht by train and then
we took the bus to the castle.






Some history


It all started with Willem Adriaan van Nassau, lord of Odijk, Kortgene,
Zeist and Driebergen, a natural grandson of Maurice of Orange and thus
a natural great grandson of Willem of Orange, also known as the Silent.

Willem Adriaan van Nassau  bought the manor of the States of Utrecht
in 1677 and had the current castle built. The architect of the house
was Jacobus Roman, who also designed Paleis Het Loo. 





The interior was mainly designed by the Huguenot Daniel Marot.
Its largely preserved wall and ceiling paintings are reminiscent
of the French Baroque. 

Construction lasted from 1677 to 1686. In 1745, Slot Zeist was
purchased by the merchant Cornelis Schellinger. In 1746 he donated
a portion to the Hernhutters that would serve as their headquarters
in the Netherlands. The Hernhutters had a Brother and Sister Square
constructed in front of the castle.

In 1830 Jan Elias Huydecoper became the new owner. He commissioned
Jan David Zocher to develop the backyard into a landscape park.
The baroque interior was adapted to the empire style that was
fashionable at the time. The large Baroque mural in the stairwell
survived this intervention because it was painted directly on the wall.

In 1924 the castle was purchased by the municipality of Zeist.

The castle was renovated in 1969 under the leadership of architect
Johannes Bernardus van Asbeck, who returned it to the original
Baroque style, using authentic demolition materials from other
Baroque buildings.

The municipality has handed over the operation of the lock to catering
entrepreneur Nico Bakker. At the beginning of December 2023,
it was announced that Fletcher Hotels will take over the operations of
Slot Zeist.




Exhibitions


We visited two lovely exhibitions at Slot Zeist: "Zeister Zilver voor 3
vorstinnen." with amazing pieces of the royal collection of our friend
Oscar Meijer (from the blog Staat van Oranje).


statues & pieces from the royal collection of Oscar Meijer






picture from the exhibition during a work visit of
Princess Beatrix to Zeist



some amazing Silver pieces of the exhibition






And the 2nd smaller exhibition from the story of Slot Zeist about the
history of the castle.








It were two great and interesting exhibitions with connections and ties
to the royal family of The Netherlands.



More information about Slot Zeist (in Dutch) on this link. 


These exhibitions were announced on the blog of Netty Royal on this link. 



Orangery

There also is a very nice Orangery, where you are able to eat or drink
something good. 



Me in front of Slot Zeist


I took the pictures about Slot Zeist in and around Slot Zeist on
January 6th. 2024. My goal for 2024: to visit at least one
castle/palace every month 😏

Location: Zeist, Netherlands

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