The seminar focuses on early modern architecture in the northern provinces of the Netherlands. The Republic of the "Seven United Provinces" (States General), founded in 1581, was faced with the task of consolidating its power vis-à-vis the Spanish-ruled southern Netherlands and used architecture, among other things, as a means of representation. After the murder of the freedom fighter and governor William of Orange from the house of Nassau-Dillenburg, 1584, his son Moritz of Orange (1567-1625) takes over his inheritance as governor and becomes head commander on the side of the Protestant Netherlands. He is the builder of the first monumental Protestant church building in the Netherlands as well as the benefactor of various representative secular buildings.

The seminar will serve to analyze and contextualize his understanding of architecture. Taking on the role of the contemporary observer, we will look at the most important places where Moritz of Orange stayed, examine his work as a benefactor, and take a look at the development of architecture in the years shortly after his death.