Heemstra State was an estate house in the noble village of Oentsjerk until 1930, where Stania State is also located.
The estate was built in the early 16th century by the Heemstra family. From 1895, the house belonged to Baron Theo van Welderen-Rengers. In 1930, the estate house was demolished and replaced by a retirement home for older people.
Today, only the old park around the estate remains, along with the gardener’s house, which can still be seen from the main road through Oentsjerk. The service house was built in 1869 for the gardener of Heemstra State. The park, with its long avenues and old trees, can still be visited, although the village has now grown up around it. Heemstra State is now a care centre in the former Heemstra Park.
To the left of the park entrance, you’ll see a small hill containing a horse’s grave. It is the honorary grave of the horse of Willem van Heemstra, which safely carried him across the Berezina River during Napoleon’s Russian campaign in 1812.
