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Kastelen & paleizen Woburn, Oost-Engeland

Woburn Abbey

Country house of the Dukes of Bedford in Bedfordshire, built on a medieval abbey site and famous for its art collection; closed for major restoration.

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Tijdelijk gesloten. The abbey has been closed to visitors since 2019 for a major restoration of its roofs, facades, interiors and gardens. The owners say they hope to reopen it in due course; no reopening date has been published. Guided deer park tours and private garden visits are offered separately.

Over het museum

Woburn Abbey was founded as a Cistercian monastery in 1145 and remained a religious house until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. In 1547 the estate was granted to Sir John Russell, later 1st Earl of Bedford, and it has been the main seat of the Russell family, later the Dukes of Bedford, ever since.

In the early seventeenth century Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, began to convert the monastic buildings into a large country house. The present house was largely created in the eighteenth century, when Henry Flitcroft and John Sanderson rebuilt it between 1747 and 1761, and Henry Holland reworked parts of it in the late 1780s. During the Second World War the abbey housed the headquarters of the Political Warfare Executive. After the war dry rot forced the demolition of about half of the building, and the 13th Duke opened the remainder to the public in 1955.

The house is known for its art collection, which includes about 250 paintings by artists such as Rubens, Van Dyck and Velazquez, a famous set of 24 views of Venice by Canaletto, and portraits by Joshua Reynolds. The park and gardens are listed, and the gardens were designed with advice from Humphry Repton. The abbey closed to visitors in November 2019 for a long programme of restoration covering the roofs, facades, interiors and gardens. At the time of writing the house is not yet open again, and no reopening date has been published.