A Walk in the Park

Finally. The historic cold snap of 2018 is over. Today dawned clear and almost warm. As an indication of the change in temperature, I only wore three layers instead of the usual five.

And so with the beautiful day at hand, we went for a walk along the path less traveled.

To the west of Haarlem, between the city and the beach, nestles the magical estate of Elswout.

Elswout at Overveen

Originally constructed in the early decades of the 17th century for a wealthy Dutch confectioner who went bankrupt before it was completed, the palace at Elswout was purchased by Gabriel Marcelis in 1635.

Marcelis, a weapons merchant and diplomatic advisor to King Christaan IV of Denmark, used the estate for his summer residence.

Peter Nason
Portrait of Gabriel Marcelis
1669
Museum of Natural History,
Hillerød, Denmark

This was typical for the merchant elite in the 17th century. Their wealth from trade, coupled with a desire to escape the crime and pollution found in the cities, made country properties like Elswout quite appealing. Essentially it was Marcelis' beach house.

The name Elswout is a derivation of the words alder (els) and wood or forest (hout). The alder is a type of tree that commonly grows in this region. Indeed, alder flourishes near water and, in The Netherlands, there is water everywhere. So much so that the Dutch people have spent hundreds of years and much backbreaking labor to hold back the North Sea.

One of the commodities used to fortify the canals and dikes around Noord-Holland was sand. And it was the sand dunes at Elswout that Marcelis excavated to produce a classical French landscape design. Marcelis hired workers to dig canals around the estate, selling the sand which was transported by boat to Amsterdam.
While there are many canals at Elswout, the main one that runs through the property is called Marcelisvaart.

This, along with the family coat of arms which appears on the gatehouse, memorializes the Marcelis name on the estate.

Marcelis crest at Elswout
photo courtesy of Marcel Tettero

Today the crest appears on the west facade of the gatehouse entrance to Elswout. Divided into quarters, the top left and bottom right depict armored soldiers.

The top right and bottom left present cannons crossed. Each set of cannons are topped with a crown. These symbols strongly hint at Marcelis' role as an arms merchant for the King of Denmark.

At the center of the crest is a shield containing the image of a house. The viewer might be correct in assuming this is a depiction of Elswout. The crest is surrounded by two lions -- a symbol of Holland in the 17th century -- and topped again with a crown.

There are several extant paintings of Elswout as it existed in the 17th century, including this one by Jan van der Heyden.

Here the viewer looks down on the estate.

The expanse of blue sky and clouds are typical of Dutch landscape paintings of the era. One can see the symmetrical layout of the gardens, typical of the classical French garden design.

Jan van der Heyden
View of the Elswout Estate
c. 1660, 39.5 x 34 cm
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

It was during this time, around 1665, that Marcelis changed the orientation of Elswout from a south - north entrance to one looking from the east to the west. Van der Heyden's painting of the estate depicts the new view looking to the west.

above the entrance arch