Overcingel restoration completed after five years

A group of employees and volunteers tackle the salon and wallpaper room of the Overcingel estate with vacuum cleaners and cleaning rags. The building will be delivered in two weeks after a thorough restoration. The building from 1777 came into the hands of the Het Drentse Landschap foundation five years ago. Before that, it was occupied by the Van Lier family since its construction.

Frank van der Velden is visibly proud of what the foundation has achieved. “We have completely restored it and made it more sustainable. But also repurposed it somewhat. The residential function has been retained, but you can hold meetings and spend the night here in the future. And in this way it will come back to life.”

At first glance, little seems to have changed compared to five years ago, but a lot has still been adjusted. “It is very noticeable here in the salon. And also in the wallpaper room next door. It is now a soft brown color, but it was all white, but color research showed that these are the original colors, so we brought them back.”

Not everything has been traced back to the estate’s early years. There are glass window sills from around 1930 and the steel stove was also installed later. “Restoration does not mean going back to a fixed point in time. The past was a process, things change. And you want to preserve all those historical layers.”

The Drenthe Landscape itself has also added a layer. The building is insulated and preserved. “A new chapter to the story that has been told here for almost three centuries. We are in a new time, but you always want to preserve the historical value.”