Every design for Zeist

Zeist lies among the woods of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, right in the middle of the province of Utrecht, and outside its built-up streets almost everything is green. The Zeisterbos lies on its doorstep, and villages like Den Dolder, Huis ter Heide, Austerlitz and Bosch en Duin sit scattered through the trees.

What sets Zeist apart is its castle. Slot Zeist, built in the late seventeenth century, earned the town the nickname Slotstad, and in 1746 it became the headquarters of the Moravian Brethren, the hernhutters. They laid out a square on either side of the drive, one for the brothers and one for the sisters, with a church and houses, and Museum Het Hernhutter Huis still tells their story. In the nineteenth century wealthy families followed, building country houses such as Ma Retraite and Wulperhorst, and later came striking modern buildings, including a music school by Gerrit Rietveld on the Utrechtseweg.

Everyday life here moves between the shops of the centre, the Wilhelminapark and the forest edge, never far from a manor or a long avenue of trees. If Zeist is your town, you know that walk from the castle gates into the woods by heart, every bench along the way included.