City marking S10/ Cruoninga

It is hardly visible from the outside, but today this municipal monument forms a whole with the adjacent former bank building. They are connected via a spaciously laid out glass stairwell. The monumental part was built around 1829, and was expanded in 1924. A new part was added in 1993, and the buildings have been combined to make room for the Protestant Theological University. 

It can hardly be seen on the ground floor, but if you look up the façade you will see an impressive mansion. The presumed year of construction can be read at the top of the richly adorned façade: 1661. Originally the building stretched far into the Jacobijnerstraat and the residents used to house their coaches and horses in the back part of the complex (which no longer exists). Until a major renovation in 1923 it also had distinctive steps by the front door. Before councillor Andreas Ludolphi had the house built, the ground was owned by the Dominicans, who founded the city’s largest monastery complex between the Jacobijnerstraat and the Hofstraat. In 1308, thanks to a gift from the Groningen prefect the ground on which this house was built had belonged to the Dominicans, who were also referred to as Jacobins after their first church in Paris. Their order founded the largest monastery complex in the city between the Jacobijnerstraat and the Hofstraat.

When Vroom & Dreesman (V&D) opened its doors in 1958, the management of the department store presented this statue to the city of Groningen. Bro Bro Brille was created by Gunnar Westman, based on a Danish children’s song. ‘Bro Bro Brille’ means Bridge Bridge Brille, a children’s game. Westman’s sculpture has a closed shape and was made from a cylinder-shaped piece of granite from an old roller the basic shape of which can still be clearly seen. The movements the sculptures make – dancing in a circle – seems to be adapted to the shape of the material.

Until the construction of the motorway and the Emma viaduct in the 1960s the Herebrug was one of the main entrance roads to the city, which made the Herebrug (1879) an important bridge.  During the liberation in April 1945 the bridge suffered immense damage, and a new one was built in 1952. It was constructed from concrete surrounded by natural stones and bricks. The Groningen coat of arms – a two-headed eagle – was incorporated into the handrail and the bridgeman’s house. In addition, artist Wladimir de Vries was asked to create a work of art for the bridge, resulting in a young woman carrying ears of corn with a lying calf at her feet. The work symbolises the alliance between the city and its surrounding area.

Artist Willem Valk applied tongues of fire and a crystal shape on this bronze commemorative tablet that symbolise the text on the bronze plate: ‘Toen rees uit oorlog en vuur / het helder kristal van de vrede’. (Then, from war and fire/rose the clear crystal of peace.) The text refers to the fierce battle that was involved in the liberation of the city of Groningen by the Canadian armed forces. On 13 April 1945 they entered the city, after which the disastrous battles for the Grote Markt took place. Many historic buildings went up in flames and the heart of the city was mutilated by shellfire. On Monday 16 April the Canadians surrounded and closed off the city centre and the last resistance broke.

Artist Aryaan Harshage designed a bluestone floor decoration for the entrance of the public library. He placed two squares at the beginning and end of the access street from which various letters were cut away. The letters are mixed up on the first tile (in front of the entrance gate on the street side) and in the second tile they are neatly ordered from A to Z. The two diamond shapes are connected by two long and narrow bands, and perpendicular to these are two paths in front of the entrance toward the side of the entrance street in the direction of the wall. These lines emphasise the connection with the building’s architecture.

Ons Blauwe Hart (Our Blue Heart) is a work of art that provides access to much more art. Artist Erwin Stienstra has hidden a large number of QR codes in the patterns of the giant Dutch tile tableau. Scanning these codes with a telephone provides information about various topics concerning Groningen city centre, such as poems by city poet Stefan Nieuwenhuis in addition to portraits of Groningen residents that the OOG TV broadcasting station recorded in the Gelkingestraat; historic stories and ‘just’ a list of current places of interest. The digital work or art between the old-Dutch looking tiled wall is constantly changing because it is continuously updated with new information.

Bus stops involve people waiting, which makes them a perfect location for a work of art. In the Oosterstraat a news ticker has been installed between two stainless steel columns. Instead of passenger information, texts are displayed about travelling, buses, and heart and lungs. The texts were written by author Jacques Brooijmans and most of them are poetic or philosophical.  In the Oosterstraat is a transparent synthetic heart in neon light above the columns. In the Gelkingestraat, that runs parallel to the Oosterstraat, lungs are placed above the columns. The organs refer to the centre and periphery of the city. When you enter the city by bus, you first pass the red heart, a symbol for the centre and the dynamic liveliness surrounding it. When leaving the city via the Gelkingestraat, buses pass the green lungs that refer to the tranquillity and space in the suburbs.

On 27 June 1909 the Academy Building was newly inaugurated after the building was entirely destroyed by fire in 1906. It was built according to the early seventeenth century North Netherlands Renaissance style the patrons used to refer to the period in which the university was established. Sculptor Petrus Ackermans designed five allegorical sculptures. Minerva  is standing in full suit of armour on top of the Academy Building with a helmet on and carrying a spear and coat of arms.  Scientia  and  Historia  represent science and history respectively. Prudentia stands for wise policy and Mathematica  for mathematics.

These four reed stems were designed by René de Boer, who used an existing well at the location of his design as a starting point: the ENT clinic of the Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen hospital. The transformed the well into a square pond with a moving reed stem at each side. The four reed stems were made from welded brass. Their exterior is smooth and round while their interior has irregular and organic shapes. The whimsical transition from the round and austere exterior to the organic interior suggests a rupture in the stems. The stalks balance on weathering steel ‘holders’ with two points and move in the wind. In 1987 the ENT clinic was demolished after which the sculpture went into storage for a long time. Since then it has received a new location at the Oostersingel on the UMCG hospital grounds.

Aletta Jacobs (1854-1929) became known as the first woman ever to be admitted to university, and who for the rest of her life championed for women’s suffrage and world peace. In 1871 Jacobs, who was born in Sappemeer, started studying medicine at the University of Groningen. She took her doctoral degree in 1879 and started a practice in Amsterdam, where she carried out important work in the area of women’s health care and birth control. The statue was created by sculptress Theresia van der Pant and in 1988 was placed on the forecourt of the Arts Faculty.

Car parks generally do not stand out because of their atmosphere, but – also thanks to P. Struycken’s illuminations – this does not apply to the car park below the Ossenmarkt square. Using twenty light frames on the floor of the car park, the concrete construction in the centre is spotlit in changing colours. The principle of the colour changes is based on the blend of the colours red, green and blue. As the lights shine more or less intensively, the colours change as they blend. P. Struycken is also known from the stamp on which he portrayed then Queen Beatrix in coloured dots and his design of the colour scheme for the rooms in the Groninger Museum.