Utrecht Maliehuis (Maliehouse)

At the beginning of the present Maliebaan is a house called the Maliehuis or Malie house.

It was built in 1636 as a club house for the players of the Malie play, a kind of hockey, and favourite by the students in those days. An other blogtopic will be dedicated to the play and history of the Maliebaan.

In the Maliehouse refreshments could be obtained.

In the 19th century the house was enlarged and used as a private house.

After a long time the house became in a bad condition by lack of occupancy .

In 1970 the house was completetly rebuilt in the inside and served then as a showroom for an exclusive furniture shop.

The exterieur was also re-established but alas without some striking (markant) details.

At this moment the SNS bank uses the building as mortgage (hypotheek) office.

On the first picture you see the maliehouse as a white building left from the Malie alley.

Utrecht Cityscapes

The shopping window of Catch (Domstraat 11-15) was dedicated to the artist Jurjen Bertens (1974) who makes a lot of city-scapes (stadsgezichten), especially of Utrecht.

He uses several techniques as digital adaptations and drawings. The use of fresh colours is remarkable since he is colour blind.

On the drawing in the backgroud the Grand Cafe Winkel van Sinkel and the buildings of the town all. In front the birthday agenda with Utrecht illustrations.

There are more artists who have Utrecht cityscapes as leading subject. They will be introduced in one of the following blogs.

Utrecht The City Wall 1

One of the privileges of the received City Rights in 1122 was that the city of Utrecht was allowed to strengthen itself against enemies from outside.

The defence has been erected in three ways, namely by:
1. duging a canal around the city (in Utrecht called the Singel or stadsbuitengracht- city outside canal)
2. erecting an earthen wall (dike)
3. building four gates and turrets (geschuttorens)

The city wall had a very strong foundation (fundament) up to three meters thick.
On this foundation a stone shield wall and a row of bows on pillars were erected.
A parapet (borstwering) and battlements (kantelen), from which arrows and later bullets could be fired, protected the marksmen (schutters) behind the shield wall.

The remains are nowadays integrated in the Zocher Garden near the Lucas Bolwerk (opposite the Stadsschouwburg- City Theatre).

The first picture shows the earthen wall and a watch tower. It seems that in winter the enemies have no difficulties to approach the wall by the frozen canal :).

The second picture shows the only visible remains of the Utrecht City Wall, namely the bows and a small part of the shield wall.

On the third picture you see too the remarkable combination of modern architecture and the medieval remains.