Utrecht Homage to Annie Brouwer

It was around 1953 when the local government of Utrecht decided to renovate the wharfs
of the Nieuwe-gracht and Oudegracht.
Old gas lamps should be put back in the street scene.
They were carried on a “Collar Stone” (Kraagsteen or console) and decorated one by one with a sculpture.
More about it in a future chapter in this blog.

Today the loco-mayor unveiled a sculpture dedicated to the former Mayor of Utrecht Annie Brouwer-Korf, who was mayor between 2 July 2007 and 20 December 2007.
It was a present of the members of the local government in honour of her departure as mayor.

See "goodbye meeting" speeches, during a special meeting of the local government, here (page 9, last two paragraphs -alas in Dutch only).

The sculpture is created by Koos Boomstra who has successfully expressed Mrs. Brouwer as she was:
A bit severe lady by which quality she maintained in all kind of situations that came up in local politic. In the background a brewery scene, for Mrs. Brouwer's name means ''brewer".

In the past you could also find about 20 breweries in the neighbourhood of this part of the Oude Gracht.

The console is placed at Oude Gracht at the wharf 328.

on the pictures: taking away the red-white Utrecht flag, the sculpture with a.o. ginkgo leaves and platinum mayor chain, and Annie Brouwer between Koos Boomstra and loco-mayor Harm Janssen

Utrecht Truus

A name, written in daffodils, looks like a delayed Valentine’s present. However it is every-thing but that. (Catharijne-singel 81)

It is a homage of the Utrecht inhabitant Tommie Hendriks to Truus van Lier, a resistance hero in World War II.

In those days the NSB Head Chief Constable Kerlen was preparing a razzia in Utrecht and for that, and other crimes, Truus van Lier shot him in the Willemsplantsoen, the public garden across the water where the daffodils are planted.
This happened on 3 September 1943.

She was arrested and brought to concentration camp Sachsenhausen where she has been executed at 27 Oktober of the same year.

Truus was a cousin of Trui van Lier and both cousins played an important role in the resistance during the war.

Truus studied law in Utrecht but became a member of the resistance group CS-6 in Amsterdam (which may stand for Correlistraat 6 where the meetings were held) .

Trui saved during four years about 150 judish children in a kind of hiding (onderduik-) creche called Kindjeshaven.

And every year the daffodils come up and write the name of Truus till they wilt (verwelken), waiting for the next year.

Utrecht Marathon

Today was the tradi-tional Utrecht Marathon.

The run-ners pass here the buildings of the Utrecht Sterrewacht near the Singel.

The marathon was won by the Kenian William Kipchumba who left in an increasing temperature the other runners behind in a time of 2h09.41.

This meant a strong improvement of the old record on this (Utrecht) track

Utrecht Utrecht for Starters

On the warf of the Oude Gracht below nr. 36 you can read the poem called:
"Utrecht for starters".




It asks you, to learn to understand the city, by feeling it's history with your own hands.

Select a good evening,
walk along the channels and look
how the light in the houses disappears.
Put than your hand on a wall.
Here the eldest stone is right.

The poem is of the, in March 2009 appointed, first City Poet Ingmar Heytze. He also published a book, with the same title as the poem, in which he selected 125 poems about the city.
A city poet is appointed - by the local city government- for two years and receives € 5.000,- p/y.

Utrecht Feest der Muzen (Party of the Muses)

On the lawn (grasveld) in front of the Stads-schouwburg at Lepelenburg is a statue,
called Feest der Muzen (party of the three Muses).

The statue is made by Joop Hekman in 1959 so this year it is exactly 50 years old !

From April on, the fountain around the statue is working and during hot days I was always jealous seeing the ladies being splashed with cold fresh water in the shadow of the tree while I was dusty and sweating.

The three Muses are three out of nine muses (nine daughters of Zeus) of the Greek mythology.
They are called Thalia (muse of comedy), Melpomene (muse of tragedy) and Tersichore (muse of dance). So the place of the statue near the theatre is really well over thought.

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.