Nederland - Slochteren, Fraeylemaborg

More than seven centuries ago farmers who lived in the neighbourhood needed to protect their crop and themselves and they built a strong stone house (in the Dutch province of Groningen they were called ‘borg’). They were inspired by local monks who started building their monasteries with bricks. Besides churches, these structures were the only buildings that used durable stone and masonry.
In 1475 there was already a farm with the name Frealemaheerd. Times were turbulent and unsafe in this part of the country. The ‘borg’ had to be fortified with a moat and extra walls. About 150 years later the house received its current name ‘Fraeylemaborg’, when it became permanently inhabited by the Fraeylema family.

Through the centuries many powerful families have made the Fraeylemaborg their home. One of them, Hendrik de Sandra de Veldtman, bought the estate in 1781 after decades of neglect and decay. He restored and transformed the house to its present form. In 1972 the last private family left the Fraeylemaborg and the estate was bought by a foundation and opened the park to the public and converted the house to a museum.

The moated ‘Fraeylemaborg’ is surrounded by a beautiful country estate of over 26 hectares with a fragment of a late 17th century garden and a 19th century landscape park. During spring it offers numerous so called ‘stinsenplanten’, plants which are more or less unique for this kind of manor gardens.