Palace Het Loo Garden Guide

The gardens of Palace Het Loo at Apeldoorn are among the finest formal gardens in the Netherlands. Laid out in the late seventeenth century for William III and Mary II and later restored to their Baroque form, they are a masterpiece of symmetry, parterres, fountains and clipped structure.

The design is built on axes and mirror-image parterres, with fountains, statuary and patterned beds framed by hedges and gravel. It is a garden of control and geometry, meant to be read from the palace and from raised walks as a single composed pattern.

For garden travellers on a Dutch itinerary, Het Loo is essential precisely because it is so different from the naturalistic gardens. It shows the formal tradition that the Dutch Wave later reacted against, and it makes the later movement’s radicalism much easier to understand.

Why Palace Het Loo matters for garden travellers

Het Loo matters because it is the Netherlands’ great reconstructed Baroque garden, and because it provides the formal counterpoint that gives the Dutch naturalistic movement its meaning.

Seeing the geometry, symmetry and control of Het Loo alongside the loose, plant-led naturalism of Vlinderhof or the Thijssepark is one of the most instructive contrasts a Dutch garden tour can offer.

What to look for

• symmetrical, mirror-image parterres
• fountains, statuary and patterned beds
• strong axes read from the palace and raised walks
• clipped hedges, gravel and formal structure
• the restoration of a seventeenth-century Baroque design
• the relationship between palace and garden
• the contrast with naturalistic Dutch planting

Garden character

Palace Het Loo is formal, symmetrical and architectural — a garden of pattern and control. It is best appreciated as a composed whole and as a historical counterpoint to the naturalistic gardens elsewhere on the route.

Visiting Palace Het Loo with GardenTours.com

On a Dutch Wave garden tour, Palace Het Loo anchors the formal end of the story. It gives essential context for understanding how radical the naturalistic movement really was.