Coendersborg: A Neoclassical Manor House in the Netherlands
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Netherlands
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Dutch
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Manor House
On this page9 sections
History
Coendersborg is a historic Groningen manor in Nuis, Netherlands, remodeled in 1813 in the Neoclassical style. A borg was a Groningen manor or country estate associated with landholding and aristocratic privileges, and Coendersborg developed from the combination of the Fossemaheerd, Harkemaplaats, and Heringheplaats.
From farmsteads to a borg
In 1534, Hemko IJpens Harkema, a sworn judge in the western part of Vredewold, a historical region of Groningen, acquired the Ooster Fossemaerd from Sywert Fossuma through an exchange. Before 1647, its western section had become connected with two other farmsteads. This combined agricultural property formed the basis of the later estate.
In 1668, Groningen councillor Ludolph Coenders bought the Fossemaheerd, the two other farms, and the surrounding lands. The estate took its name from him. He probably transformed the former farmstead into a more imposing country residence, which was being called a borg by 1699. Its aristocratic privileges included the right of collation to the church of Nuis, meaning the privilege of presenting a clergyman to its church benefice.
Land dispute and succession
Coenders expanded the estate toward the peatlands near Bolmeer, where his lands met the territory of Georg Willem von Inn und Kniphausen, Lord of Nienoord. An armed confrontation took place on 28 June 1669. The dispute ended in 1671 when the High Court of Holland, the province’s highest judicial court, divided the peat complex.
After Coenders died in 1679, the three farmsteads passed to his sister Etta Coenders, the widow of Iwo Auwema. She sold the borg in 1699 to her son-in-law Oeno van Teyens. When Oeno died in 1715, the property passed to Saco van Teyens. After Saco’s wife, Etta Arnolda van Besten, died in 1785, the borg went to Oene van Teyens.
The 1813 remodeling
After Oene’s death, the estate was inherited by his brothers Tinco and Benedictus and his sister Hyma. The siblings continued to live in Beetsterzwaag and Oldeboorn, while Hyma had the borg remodeled in 1813 into the manor house that survives today. This rebuilding gave the residence its present Neoclassical character.
Later owners and preservation
After Hyma died, the borg passed to the children of her brother Benedictus. The heirs remained childless, and the last of them died in 1866. The estate then passed to Joachimus Lunsingh Tonckens, a physician who later became mayor of Beetsterzwaag. His widow left the house to her granddaughter Margaretha Wichers in 1911, and Wichers spent her final years at Coendersborg.
In 1956, Wichers’s cousin, Arnold Daniel Hermannus Fockema Andreae, sold the estate to the foundation Het Groninger Landschap. Coendersborg is a protected national monument of the Netherlands, monument number 528899. The entrance gate and wrought-iron gate, the two adjacent farms, the nineteenth-century garden wall, and the grounds are protected as national monuments as well. In 2012, the agricultural museum ’t Rieuw moved from the borg’s barn to the Kimm farm east of the house. Its tools, household implements, and documentation illustrate regional farming before mechanization.
Remains
The manor house and adjoining buildings
The present Coendersborg occupies the site of the former Fossemaheerd and consists of the 1813 main house with associated farm buildings. Its front facade has five bays, with a framed central bay crowned by a pediment bearing the date 1813. Above the entrance door, a balcony rests on consoles and has wooden balusters. These features express the house’s Neoclassical remodeling.
Behind and to the left of the main house stand a rectangular barn and a rear house. The barn partly rests on a foundation made from monastery bricks, large medieval bricks associated with ecclesiastical building traditions and reused here as older masonry material. The main house, rear house, and barn all have half-hipped roofs.
Moat, woodland, and garden
The original estate extends behind the borg as the Coendersbos. A moat surrounds the house, while the woodland contains roe deer and tawny owls. Kingfishers have recently nested in the moat. Inside the moat, the garden has been renewed and includes a stage used for performances by the music association Amicitia.
Entrance avenue and historic paths
An entrance avenue approximately 250 metres long leads from the borg toward the Nieuweweg. Two rows of oak trees flank it, and the Malijksepad crosses the avenue in front of the house. This footpath runs beside Coendersborg and also passes the Steenhuis in Niebert. A cycle path leaves the left side of the borg toward Jonkersvaart, while a farm track leads away on the right.
Nearby sites
