Domein Bokrijk

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Bokrijk Castle

The Domein Bokrijk is a former country estate , known today as the theme park is utilized. It is known as the seat of the open-air museum of the Belgian region of Flanders . It also houses u. a. a historic castle, an arboretum and an open-air theater .

location

The domain is located in the Genk district of Bokrijk , 7.5 km west of Genk - roughly halfway between the Belgian cities of Genk and Hasselt in the Limburg province in the Flemish part of Belgium .

The history of the domain

The former domain was acquired by the Province of Limburg in 1938 at the instigation of Governor Hubert Verwilghen. However, his idea of ​​a connection between culture and nature could only be implemented from 1953 when the governor Luis Roppe began building the open-air museum. The aim was to prevent buildings of cultural and historical value from disappearing in the course of the changed housing needs of the post-war period. The open-air museum was officially opened on April 12, 1958. Joseph Weyns was the museum's inspirer and first curator. Due to a change in legislation in Belgium and Flanders, buildings of historical value can only be preserved in situ today (2014), which means that the museum can no longer be enlarged with original buildings.

The open air museum

concept

The open-air museum (Dutch: Openluchtmuseum Bokrijk ) has 140 authentic historical buildings, not counting smaller buildings such as ovens or poultry houses. The oldest building dates from 1507. Most of these are agricultural buildings from the late 17th to the end of the 19th century. In addition to farms, there are important buildings for daily village life such as schools, churches, inns and craft workshops.

The museum villages

Haspengau village

The museum consists of three museum villages, each with a village for the regions

The old City

Next to these villages there is an area called the “old town” (oude stad), to which houses from Antwerp have been moved. The idea behind this was to save Antwerp's architectural heritage, which was threatened by deforestation. This idea of ​​building part of Antwerp or an artificial city from buildings from various Flemish cities in the rural surroundings of the open-air museum was highly controversial from the start.

The construction of the old town was therefore only started in 1973 under the direction of the new museum curator Marc Laenen. A number of streets and squares from the various Flemish regions should be created. However, only a fraction of this plan was implemented. In 1984 work was stopped due to ongoing criticism of the urban reconstruction. The Old City today is essentially a reconstruction of seventeen Antwerp houses from the late 14th to the 16th centuries. A parallel for an urban area in a rural open-air museum can be found in the Hessenpark open-air museum, which was created around the same time .

At the latest from this point in time a concept for the development of this museum area was sought. In the 2001 museum guide, the old town is shown on the general map and on the website of the time, but is not mentioned anywhere else in the museum guide. In 2009 the old town was finally developed into an event location and supplemented with a hall called Hangar 58 for 2000 visitors. Today the old town is offered as an event location that can be used independently of the museum for company seminars from 20 to 300 participants and for business events from 300 to 10,000 people as well as for family celebrations.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ De Witte Raaf: Antwerp as oude stad in Bokrijk. Retrieved July 9, 2014 .
  2. Laurens De Keyzer (TextI), Michiel Hendryckx (pictures), Rolf Erdorf (translation): Bokrijk Open Air Museum . Gent, Amsterdam 2001, ISBN 90-5544-336-0 .
  3. Niewsblad.be - Oude Stad in Bokrijk wordt grootse evenementenlocatie. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 9, 2014 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nieuwsblad.be  
  4. meet @ de oude stad of hangar 58. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 2, 2012 ; Retrieved July 9, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bokrijk.be
  5. Bedrijven (the museum website). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 14, 2014 ; Retrieved July 9, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bokrijk.be

Web links

Commons : Bokrijk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 0 ″  N , 5 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  E