Paleis Het Loo is a palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. The Dutch Baroque building was built between 1684 and 1686 with the garden design by Claude Desgotz.
Palace Het Loo Apeldoorn, originally uploaded by SeeHolland.
The famous Dutch Baroque Garden at Het Loo Paleis follows the Baroque general formula established by André Le Nôtre: perfect symmetry, axial layout with radiating gravel walks, parterres with fountains, basins and statues.
the Netherlands - Apeldoorn, Palace Het Loo, originally uploaded by vtveen.
The main garden, with conservative rectangular beds instead of more elaborately shaped ones, is an enclosed space surrounded by raised walks, as a Renaissance garden might be, tucked into the woods for private enjoyment.
At its far end a shaded crosswalk of trees disguised the central vista. The orange trees set out in wooden boxes and wintered in an Orangery, which were a feature of all gardens, did double duty for the House of Orange-Nassau.
Paleis Het Loo Gardens, originally uploaded by Breigh.com.
In 1960 Queen Wilhelmina declared that when she died the palace would go to the State. It did in 1962, when Wilhelmina died at Het Loo Palace. After a thorough restoration it now houses a national museum and library devoted to the House of Orange-Nassau in Dutch history. The lost gardens of Het Loo were fully restored starting in 1970, in time to celebrate its tricentennial in 1984. Its new brickwork, trelliswork and ornaments are as raw as they must have been in 1684 and will mellow with time.
