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.

Utrecht Cultural Sunday 15 March

Utrecht started the Cultural Sundays (N/E) on the initiative of Groen Links (political – green- party).
The idea was to offer a counterbalance (tegenwicht) to the commercial shopping Sundays, to offer the Utrecht population on regular basis art and culture and to enliven (verlevendigen) the city centre.
If possible once a month there are cultural festivities in the city of different character.

This Sunday was more or less in the middle of the “Boekenweek” (Book week), in which the Dutch literature is highlighted. The theme of the Boekenweek 2009 was: “The literary Zoo”, which meant special attention to literature that refers to animals.

One of the many events was an interview at the town hall of the mayor Aleid Wolfsen with Dick Bruna, (N/E and more on the other mentioned sites)famous all over the world with his children’s books Nijntje, but for me more famous for the design of the many, many book covers of the Zwarte Beertjes pocket books. (here examples of his designs for the Simenon book covers)

Dick Bruna was an enthusiastic story-teller so the mayor had an easy task :).
Nevertheless he asked a lot of interesting questions about the way Dick Bruna started a book and what’s going on in his mind during the writing process.

Most of his ideas came up during his bicycle trips from home to his studio v.v. Dick Bruna said.
Then he sees a lot of inspiration for his books. (By the way, I often see him on his bike passing the street in which I live). He advised the audience at the end to use the bicycle as often as possible :).

He also talked about the Bruna Museum, his passion for perfection, the control on translations of his books, the efforts to make everythin as simple and clear as possible ("less is more") and many other points of interest.

At the end of the interview he answered questions from the audience- even in English with the same ease as in Dutch- and read one of his books: Vogel Piet (Bird Peter). After every page he showed the audience the drawing that belonged to it. It was a very pleasant morning.

Utrecht Pope Adrianus VI (3)

Before the building became Paushuize (the Pope’s House), it was a big building, for the first time mentioned in a document, dated 4 October 1360, in which it was passed over to the immunity of the Saint Pieter (N).

An immunity is a well traced area in which canons (kanunniken) live hidden from the view of the local authorities.

From one side it bordered to the immunity of the Dom and on the other part it bordered to the still existing Saint Pieter’s ditch, now the Kromme Nieuwe Gracht.

It knew several owners till 25 April 1517, when the building was sold to Adriaan Florensz Boeijens, the later Dutch Pope. He gave orders to rebuild the building, but has never seen it after that, by his more or less sudden death in Rome (15-09-1523).

Now it is the official building of the government of the Province Utrecht.

In the wall you can see a sculpture of Adrian VI.

Utrecht Pope Adrianus VI (2)

This picture has been taken in the Paushuize (Pope's House) in UTRECHT

POPE ADRIAN VI.(March 2, 1459 - September 14, 1523),
Was born at the Brandt alley (now –Brandtstreet) in Utrecht.

Adrian visited here a Latin school. In this time his father and his two elder brothers died.

With his uncle he had to take care of this mother.

When he was 19 years old he left for the University of Louvain (Leuven- Belgium). It was the start of a political and religion career.

More about the life of Adrian you can read here (N) or here (E).

When Adrian was elected as a Pope, the Utrecht population was enthusiastic but Adrian wasn’t. He first didn’t believe that he, son of a carpenter, would be a pope!

He is only convinced after receiving the documents. But he didn’t like the idea, especially not, since he was 62 years old and the atmosphere at the Vatican was below zero. The cardinals quarrelled and were more interested in boozing (zuipen), stuffing (vreten) themselves and exploiting whores.
They were not amused when they saw how modest and serious Adrian VI was.

After 12 months and two weeks Adrian died, probably because of the plague ( de pest) that ruled in Rome

Utrecht Pope Adrianus VI (1)

To day was a memorable day for the (Roman) Catholics.

It was the anniversary of the one and only Dutch-

and so also Utrecht - Pope Adrian VI.

The day started with a High Mass in the Catherine Cathedral, celebrated by Mgr. Wim Eijk, the present archbishop, and a symposium in the building of the Utrecht University.

Many guests arrived at the Dom place, among others the former arch bishop emeritus, also called Adrianus (Simonis) (on the picture with cap).

This day was also the start of many activities that will be generated as there are an exhibition of the famous painter Jan van Scorel, the treasurer of Pope Adrian VI (from March 20), guided tours through the Paushuize (the Pope’s House) that he bought in 1517 etc.

More about the Utrecht Pope Adrian VI in the following blogs.

Utrecht Hendrik Marsman

Hendrik Marsman
* Zeist, 30 September 1899 - † Het Kanaal, 21 June 1940

Marsman is one of the important poets of the Dutch literature.

Besides poet he was also a lawyer in Utrecht.

Against the wall of his office at Domstraat 8 is a shield on which Marsman wrote about the nature of the Utrecht people:

“No style, but the more character the town does have
A hard and narrow minded wilfilness
That fancies itself the yardstick of all things”

The most well known poem that he wrote about Holland is Herinnering aan Holland (1936) "Memory of Holland" (links D/E) which describes the Dutch landscape and the struggle against the water.