Route around Het Loo Palace and Het Aardhuis

This special route leads from the village of Hoog Soeren first past Het Aardhuis and then through the woods to Apeldoorn. Paleis Het Loo is located on the edge of Apeldoorn.

The Earth House
The Aardhuis was built in 1861 by order of King Willem III. It mainly served as a hunting lodge. The name is derived from the Aardmansberg on which it is built. The Aardmansberg is almost the highest point in the Veluwe (+102 m NAP). The Echo Well, built by Louis Napoleon, is also located on this site.

Hunting lodge
The Aardhuis at Hoog Soeren was originally built as a gathering place for high-ranking soldiers. Later, Prince Hendrik (Princess Beatrix's grandfather) increasingly used the property for hunting. At the end of the 20th century, the building became a visitors center in which the royal character can still be found. The rack with the guns, as used by King William III, is still there as it was in 1861.

Echowell
By order of Louis Napoleon, who was appointed king of the Netherlands by his brother Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, new roads were constructed in our country for the rapid movement of French troops. The construction of the echo well on the Amersfoortseweg dates from the same period. According to legend, the well was needed to provide water for the horses of passing army convoys and stagecoaches. Yet that is somewhat strange, because the well was not constructed at the lowest point in the area, as you would expect. It is located at an altitude of almost +90 meters NAP.

Palace Het Loo
Paleis Het Loo is a former royal palace on the outskirts of Apeldoorn. The palace was the permanent summer residence of the Dutch governors and kings from 1686 to 1975. The palace includes the famous garden, the palace park and the forestry, all part of Kroondomein Het Loo.

Palace
The first Orange resident was Stadtholder William III. He bought the medieval castle Het Oude Loo in 1684, in order to build a contemporary hunting lodge - the current Paleis Het Loo - next to the castle. Former city carpenter and architect Jacobus Roman designed the palace in the Dutch classicist style. The palace consists of a square main building with side wings on either side. The main building and the wings were connected by semi-circular colonnades in classicist style. The colonnades were later replaced and moved to the garden, where they can still be seen today.

William III
William III enjoyed international fame. He was married to his cousin Mary Stuart, daughter of James II, King of England. At the invitation of the Protestant party in England, William crossed to England in 1688 with an armada of 500 ships to depose his Catholic father-in-law James II. The speed and decisiveness with which'Dutch William\\\' acted won him and Mary the crowns of England, Ireland and Scotland.

French garden
The garden of Paleis Het Loo is laid out according to a strict symmetrical plan around a longitudinal axis from the center of the main building. The many box hedges, sheared in various motifs, that divide the garden into sections are also typical. The inspiration for such gardens came from France. The Garden of Versailles in particular was copied throughout Europe.
Rare crops were also planted that the West India and East India Companies brought from far and wide for William and Mary. Queen Juliana decided in 1971 that Het Loo Palace would become a museum.