Monastic knights of the Teutonic Order took possession of the Hof te Dieren Estate in 1218. In 1647, Governor (Stadholder) William II bought the estate, which remained the preferred hunting lodge of the House of Orange until Paleis Het Loo was built in 1686. The hunting lodge on the Hof te Dieren Estate no longer exists and the grounds have since been turned into a vineyard.
Teutonic Order
At the beginning of the 13th century, Count Adolf of Berg took part in the Fifth Crusade, which this time, went to Egypt and not to Jerusalem. Once there, Count Adolf was impressed by the monastic knights of the Teutonic Order who fought courageously and tended to the sick and wounded. For this reason, on his deathin 1218, Adolf left some land, with a farm, to the Order. They converted the farm into the Duytze Huys, a so-called commandry, and brothers of the Teutonic Order lived there for four centuries. The Brothers of the Order survived the religious conflict of the Eighty Years’ War by converting to Protestantism.
William II’s hunting lodge
In 1647, Governor (Stadholder) William II bought the Hof te Dieren Estate and built a hunting lodge on it. Three years later, in 1650, William developed a high fever after a hunt and died of smallpox there. His son and successor, William III, built Paleis Het Loo in 1686, which somewhat overshadowed the hunting lodge at Hof te Dieren. The lodge burnt down in 1795 when French troops came to liberate the country from the previous stadholder, William V. Then the house was rebuilt in the 19th century, to be destroyed, finally, during an English and Canadian offensive in 1945.
Garden wall
Nowadays only the gardener’s cottage and the garden’s wall remain a wall that was built in 1885 to foster a mesoclimate and afford protection from wind, cold and night frosts. Since 2004, the site of the former Hof te Dieren estate has been home to the Netherlands’ largest walled vineyard, which is open to visitors and holds wine tastings and tours.
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