Doetinchem with Slangenburg Estate and St. Willibrords Abbey

Slangenburg Castle and the Slangenburg estate date from the late Middle Ages. As manager of this area, Staatsbosbeheer tries to maintain the valuable historical structure and restore it where possible. One of the many walking avenues The park surrounding the castle is one of the best preserved examples of Dutch garden design from the seventeenth century. It was laid out in 1679 entirely in the then leading formal park style by General Frederik Johan van Baer. The characteristics of this style, clean straight lines with a geometric pattern, have been well preserved. There is a driveway, over 1 km long, with two square ponds on either side, mirror images of each other. The straight driveway is almost perpendicular to a huge system of avenues in the shape of a double trapezium, planted with stately beech and oak trees. click here to see the rest of this page In contrast to most estates in the Netherlands, the park style of the Slangenburg has hardly changed over the centuries. Only the backyard of the castle was transformed into a landscape garden in 1799 and a deer park was built at the front at the beginning of this century. The landscaped garden has beautiful trees, such as an old tulip tree and three enormous red beech trees. The age of these impressive giants is estimated at approximately 300 years. Other striking estate elements are the cemetery of the Passmann family, the last private residents of the Slangenburg, and the St. Willibrords Abbey. The backyard of the Castle click here to see the rest of this page Since 1950, the Slangenburg estate has been owned by Staatsbosbeheer. The maintenance of the historical significance requires a lot of attention. Old estate elements, such as the Rondeel, a circular place where four avenues meet, and the old orchard are being restored, while the standard fruit trees, with old cultivated varieties such as the mulberry, morel and quince, have been replanted in the original square garden areas. The Slangenburg estate currently includes 6 tenant farms. They date from the last century and are maintained and restored in the old style. The farms are important for nature; without arable land, for example, there would be no partridges living on Slangenburg. The transitions between agricultural land and forest are also of great importance: these edges are particularly rich in plant and animal species, including many butterflies. The St. Willibrords Abbey The St. Willibrords Abbey, of which Slangenburg Castle is the guesthouse, is located a few kilometers south of the castle. The idea of founding a Benedictine monastery in Gelderland first emerged in 1932 (there was then only one Benedictine monastery in the Netherlands, the St. Paulus Abbey in Oosterhout), but this plan could only become reality in 1945, when it was discovered that Slangenburg Castle was empty, because the German owner, Hermann Passmann, had had to give up his property. The Slangenburg became a temporary home for the Benedictine monks and in the meantime negotiations began that ultimately resulted in the purchase of more than 63 hectares of the Slangenburg estate, thanks to a donation from the Oosterhout abbey. The new branch was built on this land by the monks themselves in the years 1948 - 1952, according to a design by architect Tholens, and they were moved into it in 1952. Shortly afterwards it was decided to use the castle as the guest house of the monastery. Benedictine monks live according to the Rule that St. Benedict wrote around the year 540. They are people who seek solitude, silence. It is in the silence that man learns to find himself and can thus reflect and pray. The monks try to give themselves to what is called "the contemplated life". They believe that it is important for the greater society of the world that there are communities of prayer, which evoke a perspective not limited by time and space, which determine ordinary life - they point to another reality that the faithful person God calls. People need God to find peace and happiness. By seeking God, the monks hope to help the world in its pursuit of peace and happiness.