Oud Poelgeest

Herman Boerhaaves House Oud Poelgeest in Oegstgeest

Carriage house

chapel

Oud Poelgeest is a Dutch palace complex in the southern Dutch town of Oegstgeest and was the country residence of the medical doctor and botanist Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738).

lock

The castle was built in 1668 on the foundations of an earlier complex in the Dutch classical style. The builder was probably the Haarlem architect Erasmus the Otter . The former castle, the stones of which can still be found in the area, was destroyed by the Spanish in 1574 .

The onion domes were added in 1866 by the later owner Gerrit Willink, who also had the coach house and chapel built in 1867.

Today Oud Poelgeest is a hotel with conference and event rooms.

Castle Park

Boerhaave bought the castle in 1724 and designed the garden for his large botanical collection, which no longer fit into the Hortus Botanicus Leiden . His garden became famous during Boerhaave's lifetime and competed with the Hortus Hartecampensis , where his friend Carl von Linné worked. Boerhaave lived in Oud Poelgeest until 1733.

The numerous exotic and rare plants and trees in the garden are particularly worth seeing. A tulip tree planted by Boerhaave stood there until the 1990s.

The park and the buildings belonging to it are listed as a Rijksmonument .