GORINCHEM – The volunteers of the Archaeological Working Group Gorinchem are putting the finishing touches to the excavations at the Barracks Square. In their search, which started four weeks ago, they came across the remains of Huis Paffenrode to their surprise. A house that was built at the end of the sixteenth century by city treasurer Mr. Adriaen van Weresteyn. In 1618 Jonker Jacob van Paffenrode and his mother-in-law, the mother of Wilhelmina van Arkel, bought the house.
Drainage system in the garden of house Paffenrode
A beer barrel was the surprise of the day yesterday. The wooden barrel, originally intended for wine, was probably used by the residents as a water barrel. When the barrel was no longer needed as a water reservoir, the seventeenth-century Gorcumers filled it with food scraps and other waste.
However, the beer barrel is not the most unique find of the week. Earlier this week, archaeologist Pieter Floore and his colleagues came across so-called garden soil, the soil of the former garden. "At first we did not recognize that we were sitting on garden soil, but once we did, we came to the conclusion that it is very good soil. If this were to be thrown into a garden now, the plants would certainly grow from it," says Floore.
Based on the garden soil, Floore can deduce which plants grew there in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Because the builder of the house, Adriaen van Weresteyn, was a very wealthy man with contacts in the better circles, it is not strange to assume that the man must have had a very special garden. I certainly expect to come across remains of exotics such as peach and apricot trees.”
"And it is expected that traces of tulips can be found in the soil. At the end of the sixteenth century, the tulip from Turkey to Holland. The flower became very popular in the better circles. Van Weresteyn must have had tulips in his garden, given his background. It would be nice if we could determine which species they were.”
The Paffenrode finds will eventually be exhibited. Then it will also be known whether tulips actually bloomed in the Paffenrodes' garden.
by Anja Broeken
September 4, 1997
The Dordrecht resident