Colonies of Benevolence
Colonies of Benevolence
The transnational serial property is an Enlightenment experiment in social reform. These cultural landscapes demonstrate an innovative, highly influential 19th-century model of pauper relief and of settler colonialism, which today is known as an agricultural domestic colony. The property encompasses four Colonies of Benevolence in three component parts: Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord and Veenhuizen in the Netherlands, and Wortel in Belgium. Together they bear witness to a 19th century experiment in social reform, an effort to alleviate urban poverty by establishing agricultural colonies in remote locations. Established in 1818, Frederiksoord (the Netherlands) is the earliest of these Colonies and home to the original headquarters of the Society of Benevolence, an association which aimed to reduce poverty at the national level. The other component parts were constructed between 1820 and 1823. In Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord, small farms along planted avenues were built for families and this Colony was referred to as ‘free’. Wortel is a hybrid Colony, first built for families and called ‘free’, later inhabited by beggars and vagrants and catalogued as ‘unfree’. In Veenhuizen large dormitory structures and larger centralized farms along planted avenues were built for orphans, beggars and vagrants that worked under the supervision of guards. This colony was called ‘unfree’. Each component part has a distinctive spatial character, connected to the target group for which it was built, and a specific organization of the work, with either family farms or institutions with working farms for groups of individuals. The Colonies were designed as panoptic settlements along orthogonal lines. They feature residential buildings, farm houses, churches and other communal facilities. At their peak in the mid-19th century, over 11,000 people lived in such Colonies in the Netherlands. In Belgium their number peaked at 6,000 in 1910.
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Colonies de bienfaisance
Ce site transnational en série est une expérience en matière de réforme sociale inspirée des Lumières. Ces paysages culturels illustrent un modèle innovant et très influent du XIXe siècle de réduction de la misère ainsi qu’un phénomène de colonie de peuplement, connu aujourd'hui sous le nom de colonie agricole domestique. Le bien comprend quatre Colonies de bienfaisance en trois éléments constitutifs : Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord et Veenhuizen aux Pays-Bas, et Wortel en Belgique. Ils témoignent d’une expérience de réforme sociale menée au XIXe siècle, qui visait à réduire la pauvreté urbaine en établissant des colonies agricoles dans des endroits reculés. Fondée en 1818, Frederiksoord (Pays-Bas) est la plus ancienne de ces colonies et abrite le siège initial de la Société de Bienfaisance, association qui visait à réduire la pauvreté au niveau national. Les autres éléments ont été construits entre 1820 et 1823. À Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord, de petites fermes le long d'avenues plantées ont été construites pour les familles et cette colonie était qualifiée de « libre ». Wortel est une colonie hybride, d'abord construite pour les familles et appelée « libre », puis habitée par des mendiants et des vagabonds et cataloguée comme « forcée ». À Veenhuizen, de grandes structures de dortoirs et de grandes fermes centralisées le long d'avenues plantées ont été construites pour les orphelins, les mendiants et les vagabonds qui travaillaient sous la surveillance de gardiens. Cette colonie était appelée « forcée ». Chaque élément constitutif a un caractère spatial distinctif, lié au groupe cible pour lequel il a été construit, et une organisation spécifique du travail, avec soit des exploitations familiales soit des institutions avec des fermes de travail pour des groupes d'individus. Les colonies étaient conçues comme des établissements panoptiques selon un maillage orthogonal. On y trouve des édifices résidentiels, des fermes, des églises et d’autres équipements collectifs. Au plus fort de leur activité au milieu de XIXe siècle, plus de 11 000 personnes vivaient dans les colonies néerlandaises. En Belgique, le pic s’est établi en 1910 avec 6 000 résidents.
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
المستعمرات الخيرية
يضم الموقع المتسلسل العابر للحدود أربع مستوطنات، من بينها مستوطنة واحدة في بلجيكا وثلاث مستوطنات في هولندا، فضلاً عن مناظر طبيعية ثقافية. وتشهد أجزاء هذا الموقع مجتمعةً على تجربة من تجارب الإصلاح الاجتماعي التي تعود للقرن التاسع عشر، ألا وهي الجهود الرامية إلى التخفيف من حدّة الفقر الحضري من خلال إنشاء مستعمرات زراعية في المواقع النائية. وتأسست فريدريكسور (هولندا) في عام 1818، وهي أقدم هذه المستعمرات وموطن للمقر الأصلي لجمعية الخير، وكان الغرض منها يتمثل في الحد من الفقر على المستوى الوطني. ويضم الموقع مستعمرات أخرى، من بينها مستعمرتا فيلهلميناورد وفينهاوزن في هولندا، ومستعمرة فورتل في بلجيكا. وبالنظر إلى أنّ المزارع الصغيرة في المستعمرات لم تُدِر عائدات كافية، التمست جمعية الخير الدخل من مصادر أخرى، ولذلك تعاقدت مع الدولة لتوطين الأيتام، وسرعان ما شمل المشروع المتسولين والمتشردين، الأمر الذي أدّى إلى إنشاء مستعمرات "قسرية" تفتقر إلى الحرية، مثل فينهاوزن، مشفوعةً بمهاجع ضخمة ومزارع مركزيّة كي يعمل سكان هذه المستعمرات تحت إشراف الحرّاس. وصُمّمت المستعمرات بصورة متعامدة تتيح عدم حجب الرؤية في أي جزء من أجزائها، وتحتوي على منشآت سكنية ومنازل للمزارعين وكنائس ومرافق مجتمعية أخرى. وبلغت الحياة في هذه المستعمرات ذروتها في منتصف القرن التاسع عشر، إذ بلغ عدد الأشخاص الذين يقطنون فيها ما يزيد على 11 ألف نسمة في هولندا. وبلغ عدد سكان هذه المستوطنات ذروته في بلجيكا في عام 1910، إذ وصل إلى 6000 نسمة.
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
慈善定居点
该跨境遗产地包括4个定居点，其中1个位于比利时，3个在荷兰。它们共同见证了19世纪的一场社会改革实验：通过在偏远地区建立农业定居点来缓解城市贫困问题。弗雷德里柯索德（Frederiksoord，荷兰）成立于1818年，是最早的定居点，也是致力于在全国范围内减少贫困的“慈善会”的原总部所在地。该项目的其他遗产点是荷兰的威廉米瑙德（Wilhelminaoord）和芬赫伊曾（Veenhuizen），以及比利时的沃特尔（Wortel）。由于定居点的小型农场收入不足，慈善会转而寻求其他收入来源，与政府签约来安置孤儿，随后又收容乞丐和流浪者，并因此创建了有大型宿舍和集体农场的“强制”定居点（如芬赫伊曾），使他们在警卫的监督下工作。这些定居点被规划成沿垂直道路分布的全景聚落，设有住宅楼、农舍、教堂和其他公共设施。在19世纪中叶的鼎盛时期，荷兰有超过11000人生活在这样的定居点。在比利时，定居点的人数在1910年达到了6000的峰值。
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Колонии милосердия
Транснациональный серийный объект охватывает четыре населенных пункта, культурные ландшафты с одной колонией в Бельгии и тремя в Нидерландах. Вместе они являются свидетелями экспериментальной социальной реформы XIX века - попытки уменьшить уровень городской нищеты путем создания сельскохозяйственных колоний в отдаленных районах. Фредериксорд (Нидерланды), основанный в 1818 году, является самой ранней из этих колоний и первоначальным местом расположения штаб-квартиры Общества милосердия, ассоциации, целью которой было сокращение масштабов нищеты на национальном уровне. Другими компонентами объекта являются колонии Вилхельминаорд и Винхейзен в Нидерландах и Вортель в Бельгии. Поскольку мелкие фермерские хозяйства колоний не приносили достаточных доходов, Общество милосердия искало другие источники дохода, заключая с государством контракты на расселение сирот, за которыми вскоре последовали нищие и бродяги. Это привело к созданию «несвободных» колоний, таких как Винхейзен, с большими общежитиями и крупными централизованными фермами для работы под наблюдением охраны. Колонии были спроектированы как паноптические поселения по ортогональным линиям. Они включают жилые здания, фермерские дома, церкви и другие коммунальные объекты. На пике своего развития в середине XIX века более 11000 человек проживали в таких колониях в Нидерландах. В Бельгии число жителей колоний достигло 6000 в 1910 году.
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Colonias de Beneficencia
Este sitio transnacional seriado es un experimento de reforma social llevado a cabo en el siglo de las Luces. Estos paisajes culturales demuestran un modelo innovador y muy influyente de reducción de la pobreza en el siglo XIX así como un fenómeno de colonia de poblamiento, conocido hoy con el nombre de colonia agrícola doméstica. El sitio reúne cuatro Colonias de Beneficiencia repartidas por tres lugares: Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord y Veenhuizen (Países Bajos) y Wortel, establecida en Bélgica. En su conjunto constituyen el testimonio de un experimento de reforma social llevado a cabo en el siglo XIX para mitigar la pobreza de las poblaciones urbanas, estableciendo asentamientos agrarios en lugares apartados. La primera de esas colonias se creó el año 1818 en Frederiksoord (Países Bajos), donde también se estableció la sede inicial de la Sociedad de Beneficencia, cuyo propósito era reducir la pobreza en todo el país. Los otros componentes del sitio se construyeron entre 1820 y 1823. En Frederiksoord-Wilhelminaoord, una colonia calificada de “libre” se construyeron para las familias pequeñas granjas junto a avenidas rodeadas de plantas. Wortel es una colonia híbrida, primero construida para familias y bautizada como “libre” y más tarde habitada por mendigos y vagabundos y calificada como “forzosa”. En Veenhuizen se construyeron grandes dormitorios colectivos y grandes explotaciones agrarias centralizadas para huérfanos, pordioseros y vagabundos, a quienes se hacía trabajar vigilados por guardianes. Esta colonia era también “forzosa”. Cada componente del sitio tiene un carácter espacial distintivo relacionado con el grupo para el cual fue construido y una organización específica del trabajo, sea en granjas familiares o en instituciones con granjas de trabajo para grupos o individuos. Las colonias se construyeron con arreglo a un plano panóptico y un alineamiento ortogonal. Además de los edificios de albergue para los colonos, el sitio comprende granjas, iglesias y otras instalaciones colectivas. A mediados del siglo XIX, cuando las colonias de los Países Bajos llegaron a su apogeo, vivían en ellas más de 11.000 personas. En Bélgica, llegaron a ser unas 6.000 en 1910.
source: UNESCO/CPE
Description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
The Colonies of Benevolence were an Enlightenment experiment in social reform which demonstrated an innovative, highly influential model of pauper relief and of settler colonialism – the agricultural domestic colony. Beginning in 1818, the Society of Benevolence founded agricultural colonies in rural areas of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (now the Netherlands and Belgium). The Colonies of Benevolence created a highly functional landscape out of isolated peat and heath wastelands through the domestic colonisation of paupers. In the process, colonists would become morally reformed ideal citizens, adding to the nation’s wealth and integrating marginal territories in emergent nation states.
Over a seven-year period, almost 80 square kilometres of wastelands, domestic territory considered unfit for settlement, were reclaimed in Colonies. The colonies featured orthogonal roads, ribbons of houses and small farms, and communal buildings. From 1819 onwards, ‘unfree’ colonies were also founded, the last in 1825; these featured large institutions and larger farms again set in an orthogonal pattern of fields and avenues, and housed particular groups of disadvantaged people with support from the State. At their peak some 18,000 people lived in the colonies, including those within the property.
The process of transforming its poorest landscapes and citizens through a utopian process of social engineering went on until well into the 20th century. After 1918, the colonies lost their relevance and evolved into ‘normal’ villages and areas with institutions for custodial care. The property comprises four former colonies in three component parts: the free colonies of Frederiksoord and Wilhelminaoord, the colony of Wortel which was a free colony that evolved into an unfree colony, and the unfree colony of Veenhuizen.
Criterion (ii): The Colonies of Benevolence bear testimony to an exceptional and nationwide Enlightenment experiment in social reform, through a system of large agricultural home colonies. They proposed a model of social engineering based upon the notion of ‘productive labour’, with the aim of transforming poor people into ‘industrious’ citizens and uncultivated ‘wastelands’ into productive land. In addition to work, education and moral upliftment were considered essential contributions to the aim of transforming poor people into self-reliant citizens. The Colonies of Benevolence were developed as systematic self-sustaining agricultural settlements with state-of-the-art social facilities. As such, the Colonies of Benevolence pioneered the domestic colony model, attracting considerable international attention. For more than a century, they exerted an influence on various types of custodial care in Western Europe and beyond.
Criterion (iv): The Colonies of Benevolence are an outstanding example of domestic agricultural colonies created in the 19th century with the social aim of poverty alleviation. Deliberately cultivated as ‘islands’ in remote domestic heath and peatland areas, the Colonies implemented the ideas of a panoptic institution for the poor in their functional and spatial organisation. They are an outstanding example of a landscape design that represents an agricultural home colony with a social aim. The landscape patterns reflect the original character of the different types of Colonies and their subsequent evolution, and illustrate the extent, the ambition and the evolution of this social experiment in its flourishing period (1818-1918).
Integrity
The property contains all the attributes which convey the Outstanding Universal Value. It includes key examples of both free and unfree colonies. All component parts consist of a combination of relict landscape layers which together illustrate the flourishing period of the Colony model. In the case of the free colonies, attributes include the long ribbons of houses and small farms set in a pattern of orthogonal roads and fields. The unfree colonies include larger building complexes, housing, and larger farms set in an orthogonally organised landscape of avenues and fields. Features of the landscapes include their orthogonal structure with roads, avenue plantings, other plantings, meadows, fields and forests, and with the characteristic houses, farms, institutions, churches, schools and industrial buildings. While there have been changes and evolution over time, the property reflects the best-preserved cultural landscapes of the free and unfree colonies.
Authenticity
The authenticity of the property is based on its location, form and design, and materials. The distinctive cultural landscape with its structured form, plantings, surviving buildings and archaeological sites from the period when the colonies were created and flourished, truthfully and credibly tell the story of the Colonies of Benevolence and reflect the Outstanding Universal Value.
The use of the Colonies for agriculture and the social objectives formulated by the Society of Benevolence over two centuries were mainly continued and supplemented with new functions, which redefined the original social significance of the Colonies, in the spirit of the Colonies and adapted to changing times. The connecting factor is not one single ‘authentic’ period, but the landscape structure which has developed in two determining phases: the first phase of the creation (1818-1859), the phase of the further evolution, the phase of state institutions and privatisation (1860-1918).
Protection and management requirements
The property is protected by various and very different tools that range in scale from national laws to municipal codes, covering both natural and cultural values. These provide sectorial guidelines or criteria for intervention and conservation of the property. Legal protection is adequate for individual buildings. In both countries, representative buildings have been granted monument status and are protected. This includes a number of buildings and building ensembles within the colonies which are protected as individual monuments. At the national level, all the Dutch colonies are fully or partially protected as villagescapes. In Belgium, Wortel is a protected cultural heritage landscape. Consideration should be given to ensuring the national villagescape protection should cover the full extent of Wilheminaoord. In the Netherlands, a new Environment & Planning Act will enter into force in 2021 to regulate the protection of heritage values, replacing the existing Spatial Planning Act. The new Act provides opportunities for the integral protection of Outstanding Universal Value, and for the assessment of new developments. The organisation of the management system for the property seems effective. This includes an intergovernmental committee to address issues between the States Parties, a transnational steering group, the designation of site holders in each country, a technical advisory committee, site managers and staff. There is a management plan consisting of a main document related to the whole property, as well as three specific plans for the component parts. The focus of the management plan is the preservation and reinforcement of the Outstanding Universal Value for the series as a whole and for the individual colonies. Risk preparedness is addressed through existing mechanisms rather than a specific strategy. Visitor management is achieved through a range of measures including visitor centres, interpretive materials and support facilities, and further measures are planned. Traffic management is recognised as an issue. Local communities and residents are closely involved in the management of the property through formal and other means. An ongoing challenge will be to manage the property as a unified whole, especially to ensure that conservation approaches evolve in the same direction.
The Nomination files produced by the States Parties are published by the World Heritage Centre at its website and/or in working documents in order to ensure transparency, access to information and to facilitate the preparations of comparative analysis by other nominating States Parties.
The sole responsibility for the content of each Nomination file lies with the State Party concerned. The publication of the Nomination file, including the maps and names, does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the World Heritage Committee or of the Secretariat of UNESCO concerning the history or legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its boundaries.