History
The history of De Havixhorst dates back to the Late Middle Ages when the first peasants dug up the Reestdal and settled on higher elevated sandbanks. Already in 1371, the name appears in documents as possession of the Van den Clooster family. The monumental house, now called De Havixhorst, was built in 1753. De Havixhorst is a typical example of Dutch outdoor seating culture in the 17th and 18th centuries.
From the 17th century onwards, the manor came into the possession of the powerful - and in the Reeststreek very well known - noble family De Vos van Steenwijk. The current chairman of the Havixhorst Sculpture Garden Foundation is also a descendant of this family. The De Vos van Steenwijk family owned the manor for almost 300 years from 1658 to 1956. In the period up to 1982 the manor was used alternately as an old people's home, a holiday resort for young people, a shelter for Vietnamese boat refugees until it was finally purchased by the Drenthe Landscape Foundation in 1982.
The use of the manor dates back to before that time, when the Wijland family renovated the monumental complex together with Drenthe Landscape and successfully operated it as a castle hotel.
The sculpture park in the gardens of the Havixhorst was opened in June 2000.
