A shared past and joint future of castles and country houses

Date: Wednesday 1 October
Time: 10:00 – 17:00
Location: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, Smallepad 5, Amersfoort
Organisation: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed en Nederlandse Kastelenstichting
Voertaal: Dutch

The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) and the Dutch Foundation for Castles (NKS) are organising a meeting on the shared past and joint future of castles and country houses. Together with experts, and the audience, they explore and discuss the heritage of castles and country houses, as part of the colonial past and the past of slavery. This meeting takes place on 1 October, 2025.

During the meeting, the presence and (in)visibility of traces of the slavery past are discussed, through practical case studies and recent research counducted at country estates. Additionally, the Colonial Collections Datahub is presented as a new digital research tool. The program allows space for different perspectives on the continuation of the colonial and the slavery past, and furthermore includes performances, spoken word and poetry.