Essendiéras 1999-2024

25 years Essendiéras
1999 - 2024

We first visited the Chateaux of Essendiéras in the summer of 1999, and after a second viewing in autumn, with these fantastic colours, we were won over.

At Christmas 1999, we celebrated our first holiday at Essendiéras. At that time, on 24 December 1999, the notary personally came to the estate to have the deed of sale signed.

At first, we bought the châteaux with 30 hectares of land, without the rest of the estate, without the orchards and without other houses and farms. On 27 December, 3 days after buying the estate, hurricanes Lothar and Martin changed that. The castles were damaged and the orchard went bankrupt. Finally, the previous owners asked if we didn’t want to take over the whole domaine, and since 2001 the 360-hectare domain became 1 again.

From 2001, we worked on new economic foundations for the domain. The apple orchards were outdated and no longer profitable. In addition, many of the buildings were in a dilapidated state. In the years that followed, we renovated a total of 46 buildings. Now the domain is a combination of agriculture, tourism, events and solar activities.

In 2006, the penny dropped that we could never renovate all the houses on the estate on our own. From that year, we started selling the first renovated houses to new owners, often guests of the domain, who had something to invest and wanted to come more often. That way we can reinvest in the next project each time. We now count 24 homeowners who have each contributed to the renovation of the estate.

15 years after Ellen and Jeroen Bakker started this project and established a vision for this domain, the first children joined the company. Since 2014, Floris, Josefien and Helena have taken over most of the operational tasks.

We celebrate the 25th anniversary without Jeroen, who passed away in August 2024 at the age of 70. We are proud of what he left behind and we are honoured to continue his work.

All this would certainly not have been possible either without all the guests who have visited us over the past 25 years. We would like to thank you for this and we hope you will be part of the adventure again in the years to come.

Kind regards,

the Bakker family