Illuminations

Dutch East India Company Managing Director Jan Albert Sichterman intended to have the most beautiful house built in Groningen, but thought this had failed when it was delivered in 1746. The building was – and is – nonetheless impressive. The Sichterman house’s exterior is richly adorned and its interior was more than impressive, with many paintings by Dutch and Italian masters, expensive services and various art treasures. After he died in 1770, the building was divided into two parts. The balcony above the front door (and from which Sichterman apparently threw coins to the people) is in the Groninger Museum. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

In 1876, this distinctive building was the entry for the world fair in Philadelphia. In those days the building, which was designed as a former Groningen state former Dutch High School, was considered the ultimate example for school building in secondary education. A special element in this design by architect H. Raamakers is the freehand drawing classroom above the hallway. This classroom had a glass ceiling with an extended glass dome above it. The former school was designed around 1869 and is characterised by its monumental Neo-classical architectural style. Striking elements include the three semicircular arches above the entrance and the polygonal observation post lined with wood from which the stars can be observed.

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.

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.

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.

In the 1970s the narrowing of the gap between art and the public was among artist René de Boer’s main themes. This encouraged him to make appliances of his sculptures instead of merely objects to look at, and these sitting lumps are an example of this. Below the sculpture are swivel casters and nylon slide plates that allow the work to be moved, and because the sculpture hinges in the centre its shape can change. The work of art is therefore also an object to look at, lie on and play with. In 1975 Zitknobbels (Sitting Lumps) was at the Grote Markt for a month after which the municipality of purchased it and placed it in the Paddepoel shopping centre. In the late 1990s the sculpture was moved to the Selwerd shopping centre, and since 2011, the bronze bench is located on the Beren shopping square.

Most fountains look somewhat gloomy if they don’t spout water, but there is always something to see with this fountain even is the water is shut off. And this was exactly what artist Bas Lugthart intended when he was commissioned to make this design. In his design Lugthart uses the blue tube, as well as water and even wind and gravity as his material. Without water spectators see the profile of a face and the figure completes as soon as the fountain starts spouting: the arch formed by the water results in a different hair style with each gust of wind.