The Colonies as World Heritage

Why might the Colonies of Benevolence be unique in the world? On what grounds are the Colonies being proposed as World Heritage? On this page you can read more about it.

Cultural landscape

The Colonies of Benevolence are being nominated as a cultural landscape that is transnational and serial:

• Cultural landscape: the landscape of the Colonies was created by humans;
• Transnational: the Colonies of Benevolence are located in the Netherlands and Belgium;
• Serial: each of the four nominated Colonies (Frederiksoord, Wilhelminaoord, Wortel and Veenhuizen) reinforces the heritage value of the whole.

Exceptional universal value

Being unique and irreplaceable, and having an exceptional universal value: that's where it all begins. But how do you determine that? UNESCO uses ten criteria. The heritage nominated must meet at least one out of ten.

The Colonies of Benevolence are being nominated on the basis of two criteria:

• (ii) to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design.                                            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.  
• (iv) to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape wich illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history.                                                                                                                                              The Colonies of Benevolence are an extraordinary series of planned panoptic disciplinary settlements, meant for temporary segregation of able-bodied poor in a closed agricultural environment with permanent supervision. Deliberately cultivated as 'islands' in remote domestic heath and peatland areas. The Colonies implemented the ideas of a panoptic insitution for the poor in their functional and spatial organisation. The distinctive landscape organisation aimed to reinforce the disciplinary order and economic health of the Colonies. The strict  hierarchical sturcture and dimensioning, with the carefully considered landscape layout and design, was instrumental in the intended influencing of the behavior of the inhabitants, who were supposed to become 'industrious' and 'rational'. In a context of dominant economic liberalism, the Colonies of Benevolence were an early attempt to influence the labout market and a precursor of later social intervention policies of governments in the context of employment. .

Authenticity and/or integrity

If a site is convinced of its exceptional universal value, this should also be reflected in the attributes: design, materials, workmanship, setting, social and cultural aspects. Are the attributes authentic? In other words: is there a connection with the exceptional universal value? Are they complete and intact?

The current landscape of the seven Colonies of Benevolence still shows their original goal: the disciplining and elevation of large groups of people. This was done by working the land, modern (agricultural) education and moral instruction. T

The landscape has orthogonal structures, planted avenues, fields, meadows and woods, with central facilities and farms. Despite two centuries of adaptation to modern conceptions of poor relief, agriculture, mental health care and punishment, the structure of the landscape and many of the buildings have remained.

The most important attributes are therefore:

• The basic typology: the characteristic landscape typologies of the Colonies of Benevolence in their flourishing periode - with representative relict landscape layers, illustrating the functional and spatial coherence;
• The orthogonal grid: all individual elements of the orthogonal grid - planted roads, waterways, the measurement system applied and the place of buildings in the grid;
• Representative buildings and planting: individual buildings, ensembles and planting which are representative of this panoptic model of an agricultural colony.

Management plan

A management plan was also added to the dossier. This management plan is a guarantee that the various partners will provide the Colonies of Benevolence with sufficient protection. This ensures that the uniqueness, authenticity and integrity of the areas can be preserved.

In the management plan , the various partners explain how they will manage the Colonies of Benevolence in the future. The management plan will be adjusted every six years.