House Doorn

The first mention of the town of Doorn dates back to the year 838. The medieval House was originally a moated castle built at the end of the 13th century for provost Adolf of Waldeck (Kolman, 1996). (A cathedral provost is the chairman of a particular council within the church.) In 1322 it was destroyed. About twenty-five years later, reconstruction began. In 1536 it became a knight's court town

In the 16th and 17th centuries, residential buildings were built around the courtyard, which now form a whole with the main building. In 1796 it was extensively renovated, possibly under the direction of the Amsterdam architect Abraham van der Hart. The surrounding park was laid out in the English landscape style.

The size of the estate was an obstacle to the development of the village of Doorn. In 1874 the estate was parcelled out.

The House owes its fame to the German Emperor Wilhelm II. After the November Revolution of 1918, he asked for and found asylum in the Netherlands. Initially, he was based at Amerongen Castle, but he managed to buy Huis Doorn from his own funds as early as 1919. He had the driveway from the Dorpsstraat moved to the quieter Doornseweg, where the gatehouse was also built, which was built in a Dutch neo-Renaissance style. From 1920 until his death in 1941 he lived in Huis Doorn, which he furnished with objects from his palaces in Berlin and Potsdam. To the north of the House is Wilhelm's mausoleum, built under the direction of the Berlin architect E. Kiessling.

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