Hoge Veluwe National Park

De Hoge Veluwe National Park
Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe
IUCN category II (national park)
Map of the national park
Location	Gelderland, Netherlands
Nearest city	Arnhem
Coordinates	52°5′N 5°48′E / 52.083°N 5.800°E / 52.083; 5.800Coordinates: 52°5′N 5°48′E / 52.083°N 5.800°E / 52.083; 5.800
Area	55 km2 (21 sq mi)
Established	1935 [1]
Governing body	Stichting Het Nationale Park De Hoge Veluwe
www.hogeveluwe.nl

Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe (English: The Hoge Veluwe National Park) is a Dutch national park in the province of Gelderland near the cities of Ede, Wageningen, Arnhem and Apeldoorn. It is approximately 55 square kilometers in area, consisting of heathlands, sand dunes, and woodlands. It is situated in the Veluwe, the area of the largest terminal moraine in the Netherlands. Most of the landscape of the park and the Veluwe was created during the last Ice Age. The alternating sand dune areas and heathlands may have been caused by human utilization of the surrounding lands. The park forms one of the largest continuous nature reserves in the Netherlands.

History

The park was established by the businessman Anton Kröller and his wife Helene Kröller-Müller as an private estate in 1909. Up until 1923 the park was under construction with wildlife being imported and the building of the hunting lodge and fences. The hunting residence is called St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge after St. Hubertus and was designed by prominent Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage. Helene Kröller-Müller was an art collector and work had begun on a museum inside the park.

Due to worsening economic conditions the building of the museum was halted and the couple found themselves unable to keep the estate. In 1935 the art collection was donated to the State of the Netherlands, which then continued to build the Kröller-Müller Museum. The park was handed over to a foundation, which received a loan from the State.^[1] At that time the estate became the second national park in the Netherlands. The park is still one of the two private owned national parks in the Netherlands, but the only one that asks an entrance fee.

Layout and contents

St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge

The park is surrounded by fences. These, combined with the required entrance fee, led to years of protests by cyclists and hikers who were forced either to pay the fee or else to follow lengthy detours. In 2007 a solution was reached by charging reduced fees for cyclists who spend only a limited amount of time within the confines of the park.^[2][3] There are three entrances, located at the villages of Otterlo, Hoenderloo and Schaarsbergen.

There are several notable buildings inside the park. The Kröller-Müller Museum houses the art collection of the Kröller-Müller couple and includes numerous important works by artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Odilon Redon, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Auguste Rodin and Piet Mondrian among others. A second museum, Museonder, can be found at the park's visitor centre and focuses on the geology and biology of the Veluwe. Finally there is the aforementioned hunting residence which was designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage.

A bicycle sharing system in the park makes bicycles available for free to visitors, with much of the area being inaccessible by car.

Wildlife

A fox in the park

During spring the wildlife population in the park usually consists roughly of:

• 200 red deer
• 150 roe deer
• 50 wild boar
• 200 mouflon^[4]

Other species found in the park include foxes, badgers, and the European pine marten.^[5]

Miscellaneous

KLM's new airliner, a Boeing 777-300ER, has been given the name "Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe", because an airplane of this type is supposedly the most efficient and environmentally friendly one in its series.^[6]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to De Hoge Veluwe.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Hoge Veluwe National Park.

• Hoge Veluwe.nl
• Pictures of Hoge Veluwe