The name Ten Hert sounds like it belongs to a family of woodland heraldry, a proud stag on a coat of arms, but the truth is simpler and more human. Back in 1316, a city document described this building as "the stone house where Beernt ten Hert lives," located between two bridges along the canal. Ten Hert was a family name, nothing more.
That gilded deer you see above the entrance is a replica, carved in French limestone and installed in 1996. The 19th-century original rotted away, a wooden replacement from 1970 rotted too, and so here we are on the third attempt. Apparently Utrecht's weather has strong opinions about outdoor sculpture.
What survived, though, is the terracotta model of that very first deer. You can find it in the Centraal Museum, just a short walk from here, sitting quietly in a display case while its replacements keep weathering Utrecht winters outside.
So the next time someone tells you this house is named after a deer, you can set them straight: it was named after a man who lived here over seven hundred years ago, and the deer is just doing its best to keep up.
Sources. Story: opvallendutrecht.nl Photos: Het Utrechts Archief
