In 2024, the botanical garden will celebrate its 85th anniversary. For our museum, this will be an opportunity to highlight the legacy of the garden’s designer, John Bergmans, more than is currently the case. On 4 September, Kerkrade municipal councillor Jo Schlangen will unveil two display cases that will permanently highlight the garden architect and the unique genesis of the garden in Terwinselen.
These exhibits were compiled and designed by Bergmans Specialists Ivo Rosbeek and our collection manager Hanneke Schreiber. During the research, Ivo and Hanneke came into contact with heirs of John Bergmans. They managed to secure unique objects for the Botanical Garden. These will also become part of the exhibition.
The hortus in Terwinselen is unique. It is 3-in-1: Museum, heritage institution and monument. The Botanical Garden in Kerkrade is intertwined with our mining past. That makes it Cultural Heritage. The State Mines/Fund for Social Institutions were the founders of the hortus in Terwinselen. The garden tells the story of how mine directors thought up ways to do something for the workman underground and of leisure activities at the beginning of the last century.
The first plans to create a botanical garden in the mining region date back to 1935. The South Limburg Horticultural Society Heerlen had the idea of creating a hortus near the Molenberg (Heerlen). But for financial reasons, the Heerlen Municipal Executive rejected the plan. At the same time, the Fund for Social Institutions (FSI) of the State Mines was also planning to build a Botanical Garden. Their gaze then fell on a plot in Terwinselen, near ready-to-wear atelier Macintosh. A collaboration was born. The Horticultural Society was allowed to collaborate in the realisation, the parish selflessly donated an acre of land around the cemetery and the very well-known garden and landscape architect John Bergmans was commissioned to design it.
The way the garden was designed is typical of his style. This justifies the garden becoming a provincial and national monument in 1998 and 2000 respectively. Thea Werrij writes: ‘The Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed calls the garden an “example of the oeuvre of garden architect John Bergmans” and considers that the garden derives its “architectural-historical values from its special importance for the history of garden architecture”. In popular terms, by contracting Bergmans, the State Mines did not bring in a little boy.’ (Article: Thea Werrij – van Sambeek / THE BOTANIC GARDEN IN TERWINSELEN)
Its extraordinary collection and outstanding management prompted it to receive museum recognition in 2004. This makes the cultural heritage Botanical Garden Kerkrade not only a unique provincial and national monument but also the only museum botanical garden in the southern Netherlands. And with the extra attention provided by the permanent exhibition, the hortus will also host a Bergmans exhibition unique to the Netherlands and Belgium from September this year.
Roger van de Poel – August 2024