Berghotel Amersfoort

Around the year 1880 a Spa was founded on the Amersfoortse Berg, called Hotel de Berg. It opened its saloon doors to spa guests.

A beautiful, chalet-shaped building with a façade-wide veranda, shaded by the covered balcony. Above this balcony was a crossing roof frame with beautifully carved ornamental woodwork. This spa, located in an oxygen-rich green environment, stands on the then still bare mountain, whose slopes are overgrown with thickets and mainly low oak coppice.

The view is beautiful, over the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, the Eemdal and, far away in depth, the old city. The old and then only connection between Amersfoort and Utrecht was a dirt road, sheltered on both sides by young beech trees. On horseback or in a carriage, guests arrived at the spa. These were mainly well-to-do ladies from the big cities who drove in a fiacre, after which wait staff immediately rushed in to unload their luggage. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the spa attracted many wealthy Dutch people to the Amersfoort Bergkwartier because of the natural beauty. An ideal environment to catch your breath and let the tired or sick body recover. The modest Spa Hotel had 24 rooms. In 1902 Hotel De Berg passed into the hands of the Martens family.

As long as the hotel on the Berg served as a spa, it was open from early spring to late summer. When Hotel De Berg, which passed into the hands of the Martens family in 1902, was converted into the Berghotel, it was given a wooden watchtower centrally on the tiled roof. From this tower one could even see Utrecht and Ede in clear weather. This turret determined the image of the Berghotel until the Second World War. When the surrounding beech and oak trees had grown so high that nothing but green could be seen from the turret, it was demolished.

Around 1905, the restaurant accommodation, housed in a large dining room, was expanded on the other side with a tea house. The large outdoor terrace offered a view over Little Switzerland, the green area on the side of the Borneoplein. On sunny days, the terrace was filled with day guests. They rested during a walk with a cup of tea or coffee, a glass of lemonade for the children. Both the restaurant and the tea house were frequented by the well-to-do until well after the war. Incidentally, the Berghotel was not the only hotel in Amersfoort at the turn of the century. Other beautiful outdoor hotels were hotel Birkhoven and hotel Oud Leusden. In 1918, in addition to the Berghotel, Villa Amersberg was also built.

During the war years, part of the Berghotel was confiscated by the occupying forces. In addition, the large restaurant room, now known as the Van Campenzaal, served as a court where speedy justice was applied to prisoners from the nearby Kamp Amersfoort and people from the resistance. After the war, the restaurant hall gradually regained its original purpose as a space where the wealthy and the cultural and administrative elite of Amersfoort dined and held their wedding receptions. What the Amstelhotel was for Amsterdam and the Des Indes for The Hague, the Berghotel was for Amersfoort and the surrounding area. In the mid-fifties, the Martens family withdrew and sold the hotel to the Bindels family.

This family sold the hotel at the end of the eighties to the company Heilijgers, with which it became part of the Dutch Hotel Company. Until the eighties, the Berghotel remained a restaurant with 24 rooms. Since then, thanks in part to its rapidly growing prosperity, it has turned into a modern business hotel with a restaurant and grown into a 4-star accommodation. Today, Berghotel Amersfoort is still the most talked-about hotel in Amersfoort. We offer comfortable overnight stays in 88 hotel rooms, divided into three room types and a special bridal suite. There are also 16 multifunctional meeting rooms, which are ideal for every meeting. The surprising cuisine provides a culinary experience in our brasserie or on the sun terrace. Although much has changed in all these decades, the Bergteam still offers the classic service that one would expect from a location with the stature of the Berghotel.

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