A Royal Weekend … 2024

From Friday evening 11 October to Sunday 13 October 2024, an international conference on the history of the European Princely/Royal Houses will take place in Leeuwarden’s historic Town Hall. The meeting is in the regal ambience of the Orange Hall. The Nassau and Friesland Foundation invites you to attend this weekend as a guest!

We’ll start on Friday evening with a dinner at the Stadhouderlijk Hof with ‘royal entertainment’. Seven lectures are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The speakers and topics are:

• Susan Symons from The United Kingdom: Queen Victoria’s first visit to Germany
• Ted Rosvall from Sweden: From Gustav Vasa to Carl XVI Gustaf
• Mårten Hougström from Sweden: Back from Brazil – the Portuguese Royal family 1816-1910
• Carolin Philipps from Germany: Fürstin Therese von Thurn und Taxis
• Professor Dr Johan de Haan from the Netherlands: Stadhouderlijk Hof of Leeuwarden
• Simone Lamain from the Netherlands: The present situation of the European Monarchies
• Bearn Bilker from the Netherlands: The Silver Wedding Jubilee of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard in 1962

There will also be a walk to the Waalse Kerk (Walloon church), with the famous organ of Anne of Hanover, and the Grote of Jacobijnerkerk to learn about the rich history of the Frisian (Orange-)Nassaus. The organs will be played by Peter van der Zwaag.

A maximum of 70 guests can participate. Guests come from all over Europe, probably also from the USA, which is why the language of communication is of course English. It is not possible to pay for part of the weekend. The contribution for the conference and meeting itself is 125 euro. Please send an e-mail to us and transfer the amount to the bank account of the Nassau and Friesland Foundation, stating A Royal Weekend. For that you will have a full three-day programme with an exclusive dinner and seven speakers and an excursion.

One can, if necessary, stay overnight at the Stadhouderlijk Hof. You can book a room at Hotel Stadhouderlijk Hof for a single room (123 euro) or a double room (two single beds) for 133 euro, always per night. Please e-mail them and mention that you are taking part in A Royal Weekend. You cannot reach the hotel by car and park; as the hotel is located in the low-traffic city centre. Nearby is the car park with a parking arrangement of the hotel. The hotel is located right opposite the Town Hall where the conference takes place.

Registration and information: [email protected]

Bank number: NL59 INGB 0656 0954 15
BIC: INGBNL2A
If you have trouble paying via the bank: Netty has Paypal. Just send a mail to above e-mailaddress for the details.
(As long as you use the same valuta transfering money to friends is free. For payments to countries outside the euro zone, you always pay the costs for an international payment and commission costs on the exchange rate at PayPal. The percentage of commission costs depends on the country you are transferring money to and is between 3 and 4 percent: for the weekend that would be 6,04 Euro a person as far as I can see).

Thus far we have participants from The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, USA and New Zealand. There are a few places left, so don’t hesitate and register!

Please book the hotel via email, and mention A Royal Weekend:
www.hotelstadhouderlijkhof.nl
[email protected]

Our host at this event will be the Foundation Nassau and Friesland.

See also our Facebook group.

How to get there

Leeuwarden is a nice town with several Nassau-connections situated in the north of the Netherlands.

From Schiphol Airport there are two trains an hour. One goes straight to Leeuwarden, the other one needs just one change of train in Zwolle. The trip takes just two hours.

We hope to see you in October!

Netty Leistra, Ted Rosvall and Bearn Bilker