More than five hundred tombs have been cleared for the expansion of the royal crypt. In that place, in the Nieuwe Kerk of Delft, more than twenty coffins of deceased oranges can now be placed. She announced it on Monday during a church meeting.
In the new cellar, otherwise closed to the public, two boxes can be superimposed. For the expansion, a large part was excavated under the church. Between 1396 and 1829, the citizens of the city were buried there. Before excavating, the researchers had expected there to be around ten coffins buried on top of each other, but excavations have sometimes turned up as many as 23.
The remains of those 581 tombs are stored in the archaeological repository and used for DNA research. 237 so-called ossuaries were also found. In it lie skulls and long bones from cleaned graves. Since these are the remains of several people, it is difficult to conduct research on them. These bones are buried in a new grave.
An urn cabinet was also installed in the new cellar, although it has never been needed to date. All deceased members of the royal house were buried in coffins. Gijsbert van Hoogevest, director of Van Hoogevest Architecten, explains that the cabinet has been put in place to build “future-proof” and to keep “all possibilities open”.
Delft’s Nieuwe Kerk is the final resting place of members of the royal family. William of Orange, his wife Louise de Coligny, Prince Frederik Hendrik and his wife Amalia van Solms, among others, were buried in the old cellar. Also there are Queen Wilhelmina, Queen Juliana and Princess Beatrice’s husband, Prince Claus.
Beatrix’s son Prince Friso, who died in 2013 after a skiing accident, was the first Orange since 1883 not to be buried but to be buried. He occurred at the Dutch Reformed cemetery Hoge Vuurseweg in Lage Vuursche.
In which cellar Beatrix will be buried when she dies – after all, there is still a place available in the old cellar – it is unknown. This has to do with “personal wishes,” says Claudia Hörster of the Royal Collections. There is the possibility of moving the boxes to the new cellar.
