Walls with DNA and "royal blue": how is the new palace of Guillermo and Máxima de Holanda

The renovation of the palace Huis ten Bosch (The Hague), state property and official residence of the kings Guillermo de Holanda and Máxima Zorreguieta she is readyand the couple presented the results in public. Although they have been living there for six months with their daughters, princesses Amalia, Alexia and Ariana, photos of living rooms and rooms were opened to the press in July and draw attention to the explosion of colors of some spaces. There are blue stalls and rugs, almost photographic wall murals and even a wall decoration that gathers some of the DNA of the ruling couple. The works were controversial because they lasted five years and cost 63.1 million euros.

The cost is approximate because the final bill will be handed over at the end of the year by the Royal Buildings Service to Congress. In 2015, Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized to Congress for saying that the works would cost about 35 million euros. The presentation of the new palatial interior he moved something that the critics received from Maximum and the government after the appointment of the queen with Mohamed Bin Salmán, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Instead of explaining the desirability of the meeting that was held at the last G20 summit with a president the UN suggests as probably involved in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Dutch media have received accounting data: the roof of Huis Ten Bosch need 65 000 kilos of lead; 1,300 square meters of carpet were installed and 22,000 meters of cable.

Princess Beatriz, mother of Guillermo, lived in Huis ten Bosch during her reign (1980-2013) and the palace needed "a deep renovation", according to the information service of the Royal House. It had to contain the moisture of the wooden structures, modernize the pipes and cables and preserve the paper from the walls, like that of China Room, the lepisma grbad (sardineta), an insect living on paper, cardboard or mold. The result is spectacular and bold in equal parts, with DNA fragments of royal tenants incarnated in 60,000 pieces of ceramics in the walls of the Green Room or still lifes painted in the panels of the Blue Room, with important scenes for the kings: the dress of the same color worn by Máxima during the induction of her husband, in 2013, and signed by Jan Taminiau, to the skates with which Guillermo finished the race of the eleven villas of Friesland, in 1986. You can also see a tie on the ground, like the one that one day, Prince Claus, father of the king, has shot and there is a burning candle in memory of Friso, Guillermo's brother, who died the same year. An avant-garde chandelier illuminates the library, where the shelves, armchairs and carpet are in blue, a color that is repeated in other rooms.

The DNA room, its familiar name, is the work of the artist Jacob van der Beugel, who collaborated with geneticist Hans Clevers, to select sections of the Orange genetic code that could reproduce safely. "More modern, impossible, if one thinks of a portrait", according to Van der Beugel. In the office of King William, there are pictures of his family and a portrait of his illustrious parent, William of Orange, next to a walled window for years and that he has recovered to have a better view of the garden.

The decorative daring of the royal couple is tempered in the Chinese room, with marble fireplace, coffered ceilings and clbadic countryside scenes on the walls. There is also a Japanese room, a white dining room and a surprise. Renowned for his style when dressing, with his vibrant colors and huge pamelas, Máxima's desk combines gray wall murals with upholstered chairs, all in blue. Huis ten Bosch also features an Orange room, brimming with clbadic pictorial scenes. The care with which the original ceilings have been recovered attracts attention.

Huis ten Bosch is located in a natural forest in the city of The Hague and was built in the mid-seventeenth century for Frederick Henry of Orange-Nbadau., former commander of the former provinces of the north of the Netherlands and his wife, Amalia van Solms. During the French occupation (1795-1813), he served as a prison, museum, brothel and refuge to the victims of the explosion of a gunpowder store that occurred in the city ​​of Leiden, in 1807. From 1815, it belonged again to the Orange dynasty, which used it as a summer residence of origin. During the Second World War, it was about to be demolished by the Nazis, who finally only demolished a few service buildings.