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First of all: the Province of Utrecht is very varied in landscape and architecture.. mirroring a very rich heritage and history. I can only grasp to sample just a little bit of it all and put it here on the forum eventhough I live here myself. I am sure that GroeneWolf can expand on the collection that I am about to post.
I think that people that would start posting about the Province would take the very highlight of it all (the Dom Cathedral and the Tower) but I have decided not to do it. No.. I am first going to take you to the countryside. Utrecht as a province is rich in buitenplaatsen. So rich even that one of the nicknames of a part of the province is Stichtse Lustwarande. (Palace row of Het Sticht.. Het Sticht being another mediaeval name for what is now the Province).
We will be starting off at Zeist.. which is a town of around 50.000 people just north-west of Utrecht at the very heart of the Lustwarande.
This is the central square and townhall of the town. The highlight of it can not be seen in this picture. Slot Zeist.. Zeist Castle. A 17th century castle.
Every castle or buitenplaats used to have it's socalled tea house (theehuis in Dutch) where the lord of the manor used to have tea with his family and visitors during the 17th and 18th century.
This is the one at Slot Zeist during autumn.
Slot Zeist.
Zeist as a town is surrounded and penetrated by the forests of the Utrecht Hill Ridge or Utrechtse Heuvelrug. The same goes for most of the northeastern part of the province.
Wulpenhorst is just one of the countless mansions. Most of which are now in use as offices as no one could possibly afford to live there.
Another one would be Ma Retraite. Most gardens on the former buitenplaatsen have been carefully or restored in the English style.
At Austerlitz (or actually between Austerlitz and Wouderberg), only a couple of miles from Zeist one can find the rather famous pyramid that was constructed by order of Napoleon to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in what is now the Czech Republic.
Austerlitz and the pyramid were a result of the fact that Napoleon's troops had been based there. It was build in 1804.
Christmas night at the old church square in the village of Driebergen-Rijsenburg. The Church square itself is in Rijsenburg but the two villages had been twinned a long time ago. Now they form a part of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug-municipality.
In the back the St. Petrus- church can be seen.
For the Afrikaners amongst us.. Driebergen is the native birthplace of the well-known sculptor Anton van Wouw.
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