This corridor is dedicated to the Van Heek family. Jan Herman van Heek descended from a family of leading textile industrialists in Enschede, those days the capital of the Dutch textile-industry area called Twente. His great-grandfather had been a textile manufacturer as early as the 18th century. His grandfather, father, uncle and brother, they all were textile professionals. And since in Enschede it was an unwritten rule that textile married textile, he was related to virtually all textile families in Twente. So family was very important to Van Heek, who would get 6 children with his wife Annetje. Van Heek and his family lived in their house near Enschede until the end of the Second World War. Christmas, Easter, Whitsun and the summer holidays were all spent at Huis Bergh. They loved being there. But it wasn’t until 1945 that the family finally came to live at Huis Bergh permanently. A year later, in 1946, Van Heek transferred the estate together with a number of other buildings, grounds, the art collection and the archives to the Huis Bergh trust. The aim was to safeguard the castle , its grounds and its art collection for the benefit of the community.

For more information on the great fire of 1939, press A For more information on Van Heek’s various passions, press B

AB