Agneta Park

Agnetapark is a community of houses in Delft created for workers of the van Marken yeast and spirits factory. It was an influential example of the garden city movement and of community facilities for factory workers. Jacob Cornelis van Marken developed his factory from 1870. In 1882 he and his wife Agneta commissioned the landscape architect Louis Paul Zocher and the architect F. M. L. Kerkhoff to lay out a community with 78 cottages and back-to-back blocks on curving paths around a park and lake. A new company rented out the homes and provided shared facilities such as schools, a hall, shops, laundries, bath houses and a playground. Agnetapark was opened in 1884. A second stage was added in 1926 with 156 houses designed by Jan Gratama around another lake. The area has been conserved since 1989. A trail guide is available from the tourist office. Visitors can walk around and in the park find a statue of Agneta, after whom the community was named.