Management plan House Joly – Rear house with garden

The neoclassical monument Huis Joly occupies a prominent position on the Grote Markt in Ronse. We were commissioned to prepare a conservation management plan for elements of the rear building and its garden to be preserved, repaired, or restored.

Preparing a conservation management plan required extensive historical, cartographic, and architectural research to inventory the heritage values of the property and define a management matrix with measures for the immediate, short, and long term. This research was carried out in collaboration with Spectrum Boombeheer, who were responsible for the assessment of the historic garden.

Cartographic research revealed that the property has occupied an important position along Ronse’s market square since the 18th century. During the second half of the 19th century, it was acquired and transformed by Edouard Joseph Joly, a renowned art collector, archaeologist, and lawyer from Ronse, based on a design by architect Jean Baptiste Royers.

The rear building, distinguished by its picturesque historicist tower, was converted by Joly into a private museum where he housed and exhibited his exceptional personal collection of artefacts.

At the rear of the garden stands an artificial rock formation, conceived as a gateway structure or artificial grotto in the romantic picturesque style that Joly frequently employed in the gardens he designed, including the Bois Joly on the outskirts of Ronse.

The principal objective of the management plan is to preserve, enhance, and where necessary restore the monument, more specifically the rear building and its historic garden. Management measures are aimed at safeguarding and reinforcing the monument’s artistic, historical, and socio-cultural significance. Heritage-significant elements are to be retained to the greatest possible extent, while all interventions are carried out with maximum respect for the site’s authentic character.

In the short term, the management strategy focuses primarily on urgent repair and maintenance works to prevent further deterioration of the protected buildings.

In the medium term, management is directed towards the conservation of both the rear building and the garden. This conservation strategy is supported by regular inspections of the buildings and landscape, for example by Monumentenwacht, complemented by follow-up from the architectural practice that prepared the management plan.

The conservation management plan was approved by the Flemish Heritage Agency at the end of 2023 and has since been published on its official website: https://plannen.onroerenderfgoed.be/plannen/2047