Hofwijck: builder and occupant from 1639 until his death in 1687

When Constantijn Huygens was born in The Hague on September 4, 1596, he found himself in a turbulent time. The Eighty Years’ War of the Netherlands against Spain was far from over and made the first half of the seventeenth century a constant battlefield. At the same time, the flourishing trade gave Holland steadily increasing wealth, but also multiple problems. The population greatly expanded, the cities were overcrowded and became hotbeds of unrest.

Hofwijck, the recreation of paradise

Because the 28-year old Constantijn Huygens in 1625 became secretary and five years later a member of the Nassau Domain Council of the Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange, he came close to the administrative center. This was a maelstrom full of tensions, intrigues and conflicts. This undoubtedly contributed to the fact that for his entire life he passionately searched for harmony and for moments of peace and quiet. Huygens found this harmony with the Roman architect Vitruvius, who indicated that harmony was mainly to be found in the proportions of the human body. Huygens hoped to find peace and quiet in nature. So around 1639 he let his eye fall on Voorburg, a rural location on the Vliet at a short distance from The Hague. There he wants to create a ‘country estate’, or ‘villa suburbana’, a retreat, an earthly paradise of peace, quiet and contemplation. A paradise with recreational and spiritual possibilities. But also a paradise in which an urbanite, like a countryman, could be actively engaged with nature. That paradise could only be perfect, however, if the harmonious proportions of Vitruvius could also take shape in it. In the case of brick buildings this was now perfectly successful. Huygens's self-designed house on the Plein in The Hague was a triumphant example and earned praise and admiration. In a country estate, however, nature plays a dominant role in conjunction with the house. Would that living nature also want to conform to the human forms of Vitruvius? Answering this question will be the big challenge for Huygens.

Moreover, Huygens was not the only one looking for such a place in the countryside to escape the busy city life.