Vincent van Gogh's boarding school in Zevenbergen is included in a historic walk through the village. The walk starts at the central station and can be downloaded from izi.Travel.
Well-known Zevenberg voices will take you "in tow" along a fun route with great stories, historic buildings and secrets of Zevenbergen. In addition to the boarding school, the walk also takes you past the place where the founder of the boarding school, Jan Provily, is buried.
Contributors to the route were: Desiree Schuijt-van der Stee (Stationsrestaurant Happy Dees), Josette Heezen (Heeze barrel organs), John Goverde (Pelikaan Reizen; the occupant of the former boarding school), Peter van de Wiel (Café de Bakkerij), Marlies Verhoeven (Hotel Bij Verhoeven), Lenie Farla-Tolenaars, Jan Barel (Heemkundekring Willem van Strijen), Colin van Leest (Coco Systems), Jan Cornelis Lips (Slijterij Nelis), Michel van Opstal, Henk den Ridder, Kees Quispel (Lunch-café Proost), Ronald Schoone (Schoone woonwensen), Els Speelman, Mario Ploeg (Gasterij de Engel). Piet Nagtzaam, Bart Schuijt and Rinus van Eck.
Van Gogh Monument
Vincent van Gogh was sent by his parents to Jan Provily's boarding school in Zevenbergen in 1864 as an 11-year-old boy. His mother found the dealings with the children at the elementary school in Zundert too rough. The building on Zandweg in Zevenbergen had been commissioned by Jan Provily. It taught a small group of students from wealthy Dutch Reformed families in the area. When Vincent attended boarding school, there were only 18 other students. Vincent, the youngest in the school, found his stay in Zevenbergen "nonsensical. In 1876 he wrote to his brother Theo the following recollection of the moment his father took him away by carriage to boarding school:
"It was an autumn day and I was standing on the doorstep of Mr. Provily's school checking the carriage in which Dad and Moe were driving home. That yellow cart could be seen in the distance on the long road, wet after the rain, with thin trees on either side, running through the meadows. The gray sky above everything, reflected in the puddles."
Vincent left boarding school as early as August 1866. Why exactly is not known. Afterwards he went to the Rijks HBS in Tilburg. Provily died in 1875. His grave is in the cemetery of Zevenbergen opposite the water tower.
At Stationsstraat 16 (in Van Gogh's time Zandweg 40A) stands the former boarding school. Next to the building - now a residential house - stands an audio column. The column is part of a network of audio columns in West Brabant, which was realized by the West Brabant Region (RWB). The pillars are connected by a bicycle route.
That column in Zevenbergen tells of the two years the world-famous artist spent in this place.
