Rundwanderung durch den Moritz van Nassau Park

You wouldn't expect such a beautiful park on the outskirts of Kleve, and all thanks to the orange-coloured fan Johan Maurits from Nassau Siegen (1609-1679). Of course, he himself was a Van Nassau, born in Dillenburg. But he was such a big fan of our republic that he fought against the Spanish and ended up as governor of Brazil. He liked to spend his money on art, but was often in favour of black seed. The man was unhappy in love, he remained unmarried and childless all his life, so he ordered a huge funeral monument on his estate. Johan Maurits can rightly be described as a true diplomat. He dealt with all kinds of constitutional issues, but also with matrimonial matters, and he also had a flair for old things (often stolen from Brazil) and architecture. For example, he had the Mauritshuis built in The Hague (now known as the Museum) and the long straight avenues (which you will also walk through!) are an example of Unter den Linden in Berlin. The landscape you walk through resembles the dike area around Nijmegen and is close together as the crow flies. The view of Cleves is dominated by the Schwanenburg, which had its heyday under Johan Maurits. It is of course much older, but in his time, Cleves grew into a park town worthy of the population. Johan Maurits was a tolerant man. He gave up Catholics at a time when this was not possible in The Hague, but he was an enlightenment. As always, the castle suffered enormously during the French occupation and the Second World War, but fortunately there is still a lot left, and that is mainly thanks to the Schwanenburg Friends Club.