De chalets van koningin Wilhelmina in de paleisparken van Het Loo (1881-1882) en Soestdijk (1892)

Abstract

The chalets that were built for her in the grounds of the summer palaces Het Loo and Soestdijk featured prominently in the life of Dutch Queen Wilhelmina (1880-1962). The chalet at Het Loo was for playing and studying. She would also cook there and entertain guests. And she learned how to care for the animals and worked in the vegetable garden. The chalet in the grounds of Soestdijk was built during the regency of Wilhelmina's mother, Queen Emma. Wilhelmina was already twelve years old at the time, so there will have been less playing here. The Soestdijk chalet may have been used as a tea pavilion. At a later age, the Queen would use her chalets to write and paint. Until recently, the names of the architects of the chalets were unknown. Documents in the Royal House Archive in The Hague show that the chalet at Het Loo, a present from King Willem III to his daughter for her first birthday in 1881, had been designed by Lucas Hermanus Eberson (1822-1899). The chalet was constructed on the foundation of one of the summer houses that king-stadholder Willem III had built at the end of the 17 th century. In 1888 and 1889 the small house was extended with a boudoir or dressing room and a kitchen. The chalet's overhanging pavilion roof opens up at the front in a gable end that references Swiss chalet construction. In the lunette above the French windows a crowned 'W' has been carved. Wilhelmina's chalet in the grounds of Soestdijk Palace was a birthday gift from her mother, queen dowager Emma. This chalet, built in 1892 after a design by government architect Jacob Pompejus Ernst Hoeufft (1842-1910), has never been altered.