Preliminary Programme

The manors of Borregard and Hafslund in Southeastern Norway developed during the 17th and 18th centuries into quite large estates based and agriculture and forestry. The owners belonged to the small noble elite in Norway, and their lifestyle was deeply rooted in the aristocracy.

Due to their control over waterfalls and forests, the estates from around 1800 became the object of economic speculation and investments, not only by Norwegian merchants and industry owner, but also by German and English capitalists. The “manor dimensions” were mostly demonstrated by the monumental buildings and impressive parks, while the surrounding areas were turned into industrial and - eventually - urban landscapes.

The paper will present and discuss the different stages of these developments and relate them to the more general historical development of modern Norway. (Show less)

In the eighteenth century, nobles in the eastern provinces of the Netherlands had an income strategy based on office-holding combined with ownership of a relatively small manor. The manors not only provided direct revenue from rents and wood sales, but also indirectly, because they provided access to the provincial Estates, and thus to lucrative offices. This strategy came to an abrupt end after the Batavian Revolution of 1795, which abolished entry to the Estates based on noble status and ownership of a manor. This resulted in a transformation of aristocratic landownership. Many smaller nobles sold out and opted for a military or bureaucratic career. A small group of very wealthy families, however, chose to maintain and even enlarge their estates, and increase their incomes by improving management and introducing new methods of forestry and farming. This resulted in increasing economic inequality within the nobility, but also had consequences for the landscape, because smaller manor houses were demolished and the remaining ones were often enlarged and embellished and provided with larger gardens and parks. The paper will explore the causes and consequences of these changes. (Show less)

Dutch country house culture flourished in the coastal areas of the Dutch Republic from the 17th century well into the second half of the 18th century. From that moment on the formerly urban based elite developed into a true landed elite. This had significant cultural, economic and spatial implications on the existing country house culture around cities in the west of the Netherlands. As early as 1800 owners around Amsterdam started to express their concerns about the demise of formerly highly appreciated country-house landscapes such as the Amstelland area. As one owner stated in a family letter about the much debated demolition of their family country house; ‘father would not have approved of this’. In our paper we will explore two aspects of this phenomenon. 1: An analysis of the conditions and causes leading to this shift and the reception of its cultural implications from within the elite itself. 2: An exploration of the effects this shift caused for the existing country house landscape (including processes such as the emergence of new owners, the effect of absentee ownership, demolition) and the defensive and offence strategies the remaining elite developed to stand the test of time. We will explore both aspects in the framework of the metropolis Amsterdam and its urban elite. They shed light on the transformation of the entire coastal area of the Republic that underwent a similar cultural shift (Show less)