From cell to suite

2007 - The first encounter

Somewhere in the course of 2007, my father, Cees Polman, and I were invited to take a look inside the former monumental prison of Roermond.

As soon as the heavy door closed behind us, you could feel that there was no turning back. The whole building exuded an atmosphere that made it clear: entering was easy, but getting out was much harder.

A prison visit was quite rare for me, and I was impressed by the long rhythmic rows of cell doors. At a glance, you could oversee more than a hundred doors. The narrow space in between revealed the tightness of the cells behind them. Everything in this place felt like confinement, yet at the same time, the cell block exuded a remarkable sense of calm. Later, I heard that this was characteristic of prisons from that time: from one position, the guard could oversee almost all the cells.

The prison dates back to 1863 and was designed by the state architect Allard Cornelis Pierson. Around the same period, similar prisons were built in Goes and Dordrecht, but the Roermond location has since become unique and the most well-preserved.

From theater to prison

At the time of the viewing in 2007, we as the Luiten van der Valk family had been active for ten years with the nearby TheaterHotel De Oranjerie, a project that had been set up by my parents at the time. The privatization of the city theater was then combined with the construction of a hotel, restaurants, and halls. Based on the contacts from that time, we were asked to also take a look at the former prison of Roermond.

Together with the adjacent old courthouse, which had even served as the Episcopal Palace of Roermond before, the building was abandoned by the government. The condition was that a high-quality redevelopment would take place. This requirement was met under the project name 'Quartier Damianus'. The name refers to Bishop Damianus of Roermond.

The prison in transition

Since 2002, the prison had been completely dismantled and the building temporarily served as a shelter for so-called drug mules, drug couriers who were intercepted at Schiphol airport by the military police. Because all locks had been removed during the dismantling, at that time people had to make do with two sliding bolts from the local hardware store, still with the price tags on.

The arrested smugglers were placed in solitary confinement on the first night. Of the 108 cells that the wing used to have, only one cell had a toilet: the solitary confinement cell itself, now known as room 10, recognizable by the double cell doors. A visit to the toilet usually had to be requested; for a small message, a bucket was brought to the cell. It's bizarre to think that this procedure was still in place until 2007.

Next to the isolation cell was a room where interns sifted through the sewer pipe in search of evidence. In the end, we bought the nationally listed prison in 2008.

2009 - Spiritual cleansing

Because 145 years of captivity had preceded, we found it important that the building would first be spiritually cleansed. In honor of my father's 60th birthday, we held a big party in the cell block at the beginning of 2009. With three hundred people, we symbolically banished the negative energies deep into the night. The extensive renovation began the day after the party.

The renovation from cell to suite

The transition from prison to hotel was anything but easy. Instead of a building full of small compartments, larger open spaces had to be created. Three cells were combined into one room each time, which meant that four openings had to be cut in the thick cell walls.

In the past, sometimes two prisoners were housed in one cell of eight square meters, something we obviously did not want to subject our guests to. By the way, in 2025, not much has changed in the new prison of Roermond; the biggest difference lies in the windows, which are fortunately three times larger in the old prison.

What was once approved for prisoners turned out not always to be sufficient for hotel guests. For the 36 hotel rooms, two extra escape staircases had to be built. This also required cutting vertically into the building. In order to keep the structure stable, four tension rods were pulled through the building and anchored to the rear facade, all done with great care for the monumental details.

The truss structures, cast iron stairs, walkways, and of course the old cell doors have all been preserved. What we couldn't preserve were the original texts that prisoners had left on the walls. Although they were physically confined, they were free to write down their thoughts.

We have photographed all the texts and stored them digitally. Some can be found in a number of rooms and even on the bread bags in our restaurant. However, we had to apply some censorship; not everything was suitable for publication. "A real man doesn't become a cop" and "A+D on vacation" were among the milder discoveries.

Peeling off history

The demolition sometimes felt like literally peeling away the years. Under one lowered ceiling, we often found a second or even third layer, until eventually the authentic vaulted ceiling emerged. It has now been restored and can be found in our Deluxe Dungeons.

Even the realization of the elevator to the attic floor was a challenge in itself. The attic used to be used for the personal belongings of prisoners. All the rafters were numbered so that the correct bag of belongings would end up back with the rightful owner. In our Wardensuite, there is still a picture of this old attic.

Nowadays, the attic provides access to the fitness room and sauna, and cleaning is organized from here.

The main building and restaurant Damianz.

The main building has a different structure than the cell block. In the past, the offices were located here, with the director's office on the first floor. Our suite "The Director" is now located exactly in that spot. When the suite was completed, we invited the last director of the old prison as our first guest. We did wonder if this was indeed his first nap in that place.

On the ground floor of the main building, you can now find our fine dining restaurant Damianz, a nod to the church connection of the old courthouse next to the prison. Furthermore, Bishop Damianus was known for his festive culinary indulgences, which fits perfectly with our line of work.

Where visitors used to be searched at the front for forbidden items in the proverbial brought cake, they can now report for a gastronomic experience. Also located in that area were rooms where partners could meet their physical needs and of course the canteens for both staff and prisoners.

We can with some certainty state that we have long since moved beyond the old menu of water and bread.

2011 - The reopening

After two years of renovation, we reopened the doors in April 2011, this time with a completely different experience but sometimes still for the same audience. In the first years, we occasionally welcomed former inmates of the prison. In the guestbook, we often read that their room used to look quite different.

The old feature captures the imagination and continues to appeal to our guests. We notice that our hotel is so appreciated that we can proudly speak of a shortage of cells.

2018 and beyond - A new chapter

Fourteen years have passed since then. They have been wonderful years in which we have been able to further develop our product. In 2018, Het Arresthuis became the first five-star hotel of Van der Valk and restaurant Damianz earned 16 points according to Gault Millau.

That success is entirely thanks to a dedicated team that is ready for our 'prisoners' every day. And yes, we now see quite a few repeat offenders returning. In our case, we consider that the greatest compliment you can receive.