Palais het Loo, once home to the Dutch royal family and now a museum has re-opened after a five-year project to create a larger museum space underneath the original palace, built in the 17th century as a hunting lodge for William of Orange.
The project involved excavating a new basement 10 meters deep with the Palace resting on temporary foundations while 35,000 cubic meters of water and 1,800 truckloads of sand were removed. The 5,000 square meter space created has allowed a large space for temporary exhibits as well as the museum’s exhibits on royal family history.
A timelapse video of the whole project—five years in less than two minutes—is available for viewing.
The building was created for William of Orange and his wife Mary before they also became rulers of Great Britain. It continued in the Dutch royal family until 1962, when Queen Wilhelmina bequeathed and the surrounding estate to the Dutch state—with a provision that if the monarch were to be abolished, the state would return the estate to the family.
