Monuments
In the Netherlands, there are four ways to protect monuments or historic structures:
- National Monuments
- Municipal monuments
- Provincial monuments
- Protected city and village sites.
The National Cultural Heritage Agency plays a role primarily with national monuments and town and villagescapes.
National Monuments
National monuments are buildings or other objects that are of national importance. For example, because of their beauty or the property's history for the Netherlands. The Netherlands has almost 62,000 national monuments. The current number of national monuments can be found on the Heritage Monitor of the Cultural Heritage Agency. Residential buildings make up the largest group.
Work on a national monument often requires a permit to safeguard the character of the property. There are also financial arrangements for owners of national monuments in the form of grants or low-interest loans.
Municipal monuments
Some buildings have special significance for a city, village or region. In that case, the municipality can place such a building on the municipal monument list. The municipality itself decides which regulations apply to these buildings. More information about the different regulations can be found on monumenten.nl
Provincial monuments
The province of Limburg has designated properties as provincial monuments.
Protected city and village sites
A protected city or village landmark is an area with a special cultural-historical character. The protection preserves the cultural-historical character. There are approximately 400 protected views in the Netherlands. A protected town or village face always contains national monuments, but not all buildings within the face have monumental status. Do you live within a protected sight? Then you cannot simply renovate or change elements of your building. Even if your property does not have monumental status. Before starting any work, check with your municipality to see if you need a permit.
Role of the National Cultural Heritage Agency
The National Agency for Cultural Heritage has a number of tasks in the protection and preservation of national monuments and protected town and village sites.
- Designate national monuments and protected city and village sites;
- Register of Monuments;
- Advice on restoration and zoning issues;
- Share knowledge about restoration and incorporating national monuments into zoning;
- Awarding grant for the purpose of restoration.
Policy
Designation of national monuments and protected town and village sites
The National Service for Cultural Heritage designates national monuments and protected city and village sites on behalf of the Minister of Education, Culture and Science. For several years now, the Netherlands has had a cautious designation policy. The focus is now on the management of the national monument database and administration. For more information on the designation policy, see the dossier on designation and removal of monuments. The National Office does still designate protected town and village sites.
Register of Monuments
All national monuments are listed in the Register of Monuments. The National Agency for Cultural Heritage manages this register. The monument register contains the name of the monument, the monument number and a short description. Some monuments also have photographs, maps or other visual material. You can consult the register of monuments at cultureerfgoed.nl or at monumenten.nl
Opinion
The National Office advises on designation, permits, restorations. We do that to individuals, but also to municipalities and other organizations. We provide advice directly and in the form of brochures and courses.
Knowledge
The National Cultural Heritage Agency has many in-house specialists who conduct research on a variety of topics. We share this knowledge with a wide audience in various ways. For example, through publications, the magazine that appears three times a year, and through our website. We also participate in a number of initiatives such as fairs and symposia, as well as the website for monument owners monumenten.nl
In many of these initiatives, the National Heritage Agency works with its partners.
Laws
The National Agency for Cultural Heritage is involved in developing legislation on behalf of the Minister of Education, Culture and Science. We play an important role in the licensing system for monuments. The National Agency for Cultural Heritage is also responsible for awarding grants for restoration and maintenance.