House at Vliet

House te Vliet is a former castle near Lopikerkapel and was built around 1375. From a cultural-historical perspective, it was an important location in the municipality of Lopik. The castle likely originated from a house with a defense tower of 2-3 stories and surrounded by a moat. These types of towers are also known as donjons and were not built just anywhere; the location had to be strategically advantageous.

In 1379, the house was granted as a fief by the Bishop of Utrecht to Herman van den Damme. He came from an old Gelderland family. In the 16th century, the residential tower became part of a country house. The house was damaged by the French in the disaster year 1672 and subsequently remodeled in the last decade of the 17th century. Between 1730 and 1744, the Flemish façades were replaced by dormers, and the upper part of the tower was transformed into a bell tower.

In the early 19th century, the southern part of the 16th-century west wing was demolished. In 1856, the west wing was shortened with a travee; a new roof, a new facade, and a new entrance were created. Between 1801 and 1936, the house was owned by the Barchman Wuytiers family; the last owner from this family had it auctioned on December 28, 1936, after which it assumed an almost agricultural function. In 1937, the owner wanted to demolish the house up to the first floor and convert it into a flat roof. This was prevented, but the second floor was removed, and the roof was lowered by one floor.

In the current house, the 14th-century foundations and parts of the medieval masonry are still visible. At ground level, remnants of the residential tower can still be found, and there is also medieval masonry present in the various facades. Traces of 16th-century construction are still visible in the ceiling of the first floor.

Herman de Man Omnibus 1954: "Here, around House te Vliet, where Mr. Baron lives, the Dijkgraaf of the Lekkendijk Bovendams, who also sits in the National Government in The Hague, there is much tree cover, further brushy coppices, ponds (with twenty-pound carp in them), and old corners with high-growing runes. For children, around summer thunderstorms, when the air becomes fierce and all the white shines whiter and every blade of grass casts a black shadow, for the youngsters it is a miraculous mystery there in Lopik-Capel."

This article previously appeared in Castle & Country Estate, edition number 48, 2015:

In House te Vliet, residences have now been realized. This was different before the renovation in 2014 when House te Vliet was in poor condition. In early 2010, the former castle received a national subsidy. Together with seven other monuments in the province of Utrecht, it received an amount of over 6.5 million euros. To carry out the restoration, the partnership 'House te Vliet' was established in 2014. This partnership submitted a construction plan to the municipality of Lopik in the same year. It concerns a thorough restoration of the house, its division into five residential units, and the construction of fourteen houses within the outer moat. The partnership has convinced the owner of the parcel next to House te Vliet to terminate his agricultural activities, allowing four new houses to be built on this parcel. There were already plans to restore House te Vliet in 1992. However, the plans and associated financing were not satisfactory to the owner, causing the restoration to be canceled. That is not the case now. On May 1, 2014, the restoration of the house commenced.

Saving what can be saved?
The Working Group for Threatened Castles and Country Estates sees the difficult position in which the local government finds itself. Due to the withdrawing central government, the municipality of Lopik is responsible for maintaining the national monument. The reduction or even cessation of restoration subsidies forces local governments to find other funding sources for their restoration projects. To preserve the building, money must, therefore, be found. In this case, it has been found by agreeing to the construction of new houses within and in the immediate vicinity of the monument. For House te Vliet, this seems to be the only option to save at least something of the historical estate. Years of neglect of the house and cluttering of the immediate surroundings have severely affected the estate. Despite the deterioration of the environment since 1927, when the estate was subdivided and sold, various other historical elements from different periods of the long history of this small estate are still present. Due to the planned 'urbanization' around the object, this remaining interplay of the historical environment of the house will further disappear.

New insights
The current restoration provides interesting new insights into the construction history of House te Vliet. Although the first mention of the castle dates back only to 1375, based on the found building-historical characteristics, it must be assumed that the house was built in the 13th century. The building during this period consisted of a square tower of almost 12 x 11 meters. In the 16th century (1538), House te Vliet received the status of a knight's court. This was accompanied by a significant renovation. A large part of the masonry of the current building dates from the 16th century. It also became clear that the house, contrary to what was generally assumed, was not destroyed by the French during the disaster year 1672. The 16th-century masonry is in such a state that complete destruction could not have occurred. In 1815, the house was reduced by the demolition of the left part. Subsequently, the building in 1856 was enlarged again into a rectangular house with a large gable roof. In 1936, House te Vliet was auctioned after the last resident, Baron Van Hardenbroek, left the estate in 1927. The buyer, Mr. Van de Hoef, had a fruit trading company and a small canning factory, and House te Vliet took on a residential and business designation. Van de Hoef lowered the 19th-century roof after he had demolished the second floor of the house. He also removed the porch with stairs leading to the entrance on the first floor. Furthermore, Van de Hoef converted the orangery on the grounds into two residences. The building still stands but has been unrecognizably renovated.

Walls and entrances
The current House te Vliet contains masonry from the 13th-century residential tower and the late 16th-century knight's estate. At the current ground level, much remains, about 60 percent, of the 13th-century masonry of the cellar. The tower may have had only one floor above a cellar. This was accessible via a wall stair in the 2.5-meter-thick wall. The thickness of the walls and the presence of a water well in the cellar indicate that it could be defended in times of war. The entrance to the house was still at the back in the middle of the 17th century. In the second half of the 17th century, the entrance was moved to the other side of the house, which also shifted the forecourt. On both sides of the forecourt, the construction houses were built and were accessed by a gate at the end of the driveway. The driveway south of the house, known as the Notenlaan, is still present and probably dates from the last decade of the 17th century. During this period, a so-called Star Forest was also planted in the garden. Many of the trees that were planted at this stage of the estate were cut down in the early 20th century, after which the estate was subdivided and the gardens were used as pasture. The castle is located on 1/3 of an elongated parcel and was built within the 12th-century strip subdivision. Behind the house were gardens, with a pond in the garden closest to the house. In the 18th century, the gardens were surrounded by moats that have now been filled in. Some sections of the moat were still present in the first half of the 20th century. In 1936, during the auction, there was still a moat around House te Vliet. The current ditches at the back still show its course.

Ambivalence
There are thus many historical remnants still present both in the house and in the immediate surroundings. Through the restoration and the associated research, our insight into the history of the building, but especially in the estate biotope, has deepened. The Working Group for Threatened Castles and Country Estates wants to highlight two developments in the handling of estates with the case of House te Vliet: on the one hand, the prevailing concentration on the main form, through which the building is preserved, but must be operated very intensively to generate sufficient finances. On the other hand, the working group fears that the ensemble of estate and biotope (environment), which is of great importance for the appreciation and experience of the monument, will increasingly be sacrificed in the search for economic drivers. This goes directly against current views on monuments: not the building itself, but the building in its environment should take center stage. Therefore, the working group advocates a critical approach to reallocation plans.

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