Het Loo Palace

The symmetrical Dutch Baroque building was designed by Jacob Roman and Johan van Swieten and was built between 1684 and 1686 for stadtholder-king William III and Mary II of England. The garden was designed by Claude Desgotz.

After the elder House of Orange-Nassau had become extinct with the death of William III of England in 1702, he left all his estates in the Netherlands to his cousin Johan Willem Friso of the House of Nassau-Dietz in his Last Will. However, the King of Prussia claimed them, as he also descended from the princes of Orange, and the Houses of Orange-Nassau and Hohenzollern had, a few generations before, made an inheritance contract. Therefore, most of the older properties, though not including Het Loo, were in fact taken over by the Hohenzollerns, who never lived there. Johan Willem Friso's son, William IV, Prince of Orange, finally took over Het Loo Palace, Soestdijk palace, as well as Huis ten Bosch palace near The Hague. His widow later bought back several of the older properties in and around The Hague from Frederick William I of Prussia in 1732.

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