Accessibility study heritage site loevestein

BLOC is working for the Rijksmuseum Loevestein to make the castle more accessible. This also requires a smart approach to their stakeholders. Rijksmuseum Slot Loevestein is a UNESCO-recognised World Heritage Site that tells the story of freedom like no other place in the Netherlands. And that story is more relevant than ever. At the same time, Loevestein is located in an (administratively) exciting place: namely at the westernmost point of landscape Munnikenland, near the border between the provinces of Gelderland and South Holland and between the rivers Waal and Maas. The foundation has therefore drawn up a master plan for the development of the castle and its surroundings, the Munnikenland.

Recent floods have again shown that land accessibility is fragile and sometimes impossible. So this calls for good accessibility by water to guarantee individual visitors, groups and river cruise passengers, crucial for the foundation’s financial security. This is only possible if municipalities, the Province, Rijkswaterstaat, Staatsbosbeheer and, for example, the Water Board are involved and support the importance of this accessibility. We are therefore organising a process that should eventually lead to an administrative session to organise administrative support together from realistic opportunities.

A relevant World Heritage site with a challenging stakeholder base

Rijksmuseum Slot Loevestein is a UNESCO-recognised World Heritage Site that tells the contemporary story of freedom in an amazing way. Of course, it is internationally famous for the story of Hugo de Groot, for which it then bears responsibility. Today, the castle also organises exhibitions on freedom of speech with Amnesty International, for example. This gives Loevestein a crucial social function. That is why it is good that the foundation is working hard on a master plan for a sustainable future and that in a complex stakeholder environment.

How do you engage a complex stakeholder field around an important heritage?

We are therefore organising a process, with many preliminary discussions and explorations, on behalf of the foundation, to get a good picture of the various possibilities for combined waterborne transport, including the development of possible new mooring locations. Here, we are looking at how passenger transport by water from the existing ferry network can be combined with river cruise shipping, among other things. For further decision-making, we will then present the results to a delegation of directors from all relevant stakeholders, such as the municipalities of Zaltbommel and Gorinchem, the province of Gelderland, Rijkswaterstaat, the Cultural Heritage Agency, Staatsbosbeheer and the Rijksmuseum Slot Loevestein Foundation itself.