the story about the four poster must be wrong. Amalia's bedchamber was the current green drawing room. The last person to sleep in that room was Queen Sophie. Ever since the palace was used as an alternative summer residence by Queen Wilhelmina during WWI the room became a drawing room (Wilhelmina used Amalia's grand cabinet as her office possibly inspired by her father's first wive who used the room as her writing room. Beatrix also had her office there, Juliana had her office in the first room of the inner pavilion of the Wassenaar wing).
Besides hardly any pieces of the 18th century furniture of the Orange-Nassau dynasty remained in the collections and even less of the 17th century pieces. Had a bed of Amalia of Solms survived it would surely have been used in exhibitions but it has not. So i think he saw a bedroom and the story about Amalia's bed was wrongly told. Not unlike the bed in Holyrood House that for quite some time was said to be the bed of Mary Queen of Scots but turned out to be a later bed ordered for someone else.
The construction of the floor of the Hall of Orange might have been altered since that visit. After the war the palace was quickly restored and some unique part like that special floor might have been lost. I have never heard of a similar story about the current floor. I have to say i also never heard about it in any of the documents about the palace and the floor i read before and there are not many publications about the Dutch palaces i've not read.
Long time ago, when I was about 17, a much older friend who had visited the palace right after the war, told me that the fourposter bed of Amalia van Solms, however in very bad state, was still in situ those days. He also related how ingenious the star-shaped floor of the Oranjezaal was constructed, the undelying beams slighty curving upwards towards the center, so that when the room was full of people with all the weight incurred, the floor would sag to an exact horizontal position.
Thanks Johan, for your insight and for already answering some of the questions I had!
Yes, I watched that recent episode of Blauw Bloed and am hoping the media that is invited for a (limited) view of the restored Palace will not only give some sugary-sweet and non-critical comments as we are used to by said commentators but that we will also get to hear and read the opinions of those who have more historical knowledge of the Palace!
Thanks again!
In yesterday's episode of Blauw Bloed (Dutch weekly royalty program) Jeroen Snel was talking to Justine Marcella of Vorsten (royalty magazine) and they mentioned the media would be invited in the spring to see the renovated palace.
The renovation isn't complete yet. The lights that go between the three doors have not returned but the brackets have been painted in a dark colour.
They also changed quite a bit in the private wing of the palace. Where his parents had their main living room on the first floor leading on to a balcony that only had early morning sun the king already stated that the main living room would now be on the ground floor so the family can walk into the garden. Im wondering how that is working out as the lower floor is also not as high as the first floor and used to be the location of the rooms of Willem-Alexander and his brothers. Not that im excepting we'll be given a clear picture of how the rooms are laid out.
I had hoped they might restore the audience room of William IV and Anne of Hanover in the inner pavilion of the Wassenaar wing but it seems the division made by Louis Napoleon has remained (some of the restoration photos of the Rijksvastgoeddienst showed the ceiling of the first of the two rooms being restored).
Im not sure if i like this darker look of the facade with the darker windows. I checked an old painting of the 18th century palace and the windows looked white on that so i don't know why they felt the need to change the colour.
From the few photos i have seen it's clear that the ballroom above the main entrance hall has retained/regained it's golden yellow damask walls.
I am wondering what the blue and green drawing rooms will look like. The furniture that used to be in the blue drawing room has in the past few years been used in the white hall of the Noordeinde Palace.
I feel that set would look much better with a new bright green upholstery in the green drawing room whereas the Louis XVI pieces from the green room would look much better with a new brighter blue fabric in the blue room.
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