Dordrecht, oldest city of Holland

The oldest buildings part 2

Most images are clickable to enlarge in a new window.

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Gates in Dordrecht

The city walls and most of the gates are demolished in the 19th century because they were no longer useful to defend the city against enemies. I am happy that some of them still remain at present time, here you can see some of them.

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Part of the map of Dordrecht in the 17th century, with the Groothoofdspoort at the border of the river.

Groothoods gate

The Old Harbor, guarded by the gate with the unspeakable name "GROOTHOOFDSPOORT", the street just above the harbor is the Wine Street. The Groothoofds gate build in the 16th century also called the ALVA gate.

View from the Merwede river	Riverside	Landside	Landside close-up

Riverside close-up	The Virgin in front of the Gate *

* The sign reads: 'Pax civium et concordia tutissime urbem muniunt' which means to convey that a town's best protection is provided by mutual peace and unanimity of its citizens, and 'Custos esto mihi Deus Jehova', saying: 'Lord Jehova be thou my Keeper'.

Air panorama	Riverside clos-up	Riverside clos-up	Riverside, front above the gate

Landside close-up	Landside close-up	Gate close-up	Commemorative stone 1418 *

* For explanation of the stone go HERE

Old painting, about 1900	Old photo landside 1910	Old painting, about 1920

Catharijne gate

Another gate left over, on the right side you can see some of the stock houses and in the background the Old Meuse river. The Gate dates from 1652.

Landside	The Gate, to the left old warehouses	The Gate, to the left old warehouses	Riverside

Harbors Canals and Bridges

Here some pictures of the old city, harbors and canals.

 

A panorama view at the Maartensgat

A panorama view at the Boomkade

A panorama view at the Wolwevers - Kuipers harbor

Voorstraat harbor (Thure River) view to the east	Voorstraat  harbor old buildings	Voorstraat harbor old buildings	Voorstraat harbor (Thure River) and backside Big Church

Voorstraat harbor (Thure river) with Big Church	Pottenkade	Pottenkade	End of the Pottenkade

Maartensgat	New harbor with old buildings	New harbor with old buildings

New harbor	New harbor with old buildings	New harbor	New harbor

New harbor with view on the Big Church	New harbor with view on the Big Church	New harbor with view on the Big Church	New harbor

New harbor Museum v Gijn	Panorama view Wolwevers harbor	Wolwevers harbor	Wolwevers harbor with warehouse Stockholm

Wolwevers harbor with warehouse Stockholm	Wolwevers harbor with tugnoat	Wolwevers harbor with steam-tugboat	Wolwevers harbor with tugboat

Voorstraat-north harbor with backside Groothoofds gate	Voorstraat-north harbor	Voorstraat-north harbor with the Wine bridge	Voorstraat-morth harbor

Voorstraat harbor	Voorstrtaat harbor with tourist boat	Spui harbor Kromhout/Vest

notes : Kuipers haven in English Wine-vats harbor. Wolwevers haven in English Wool-weavers harbor

Modern Harbors

A picture of the modern Sea harbor of Dordrecht with the rivers Old Meuse and Dordsche Kil.

Old and New Bridges

New bridge Old Meuse	Damiaten bridge

Damiaten bridge	Damiaten bridge	Damiaten bridge	Damiaten bridge

Wolwevers harber with view on Damiaten bridge	Damiaten Bridge view to the river	Long iron at the New harbour	Maartensgat Boom bridge

Demolished Buildings

A lot of beautiful buildings, harbors and other historical places are "demolished" in the 19th and especially in the 20th century by the local government, I still blame them for that together with a lot of other local citizens.

The Spui gate. This picture is taken shortly before the gate was demolished in 1870.

The Spui gate was one of the gates of the old city's entrance from the Westside but it is demolished (I call it destroyed) in 1870. This is a digital reconstruction picture of the Spui gate made by Wick van Rij You can take a virtual tour to see how people came into the city in those days.

This animation is made by Wick van Rij, the file is in AVI format (2,398 KB) thanks also to www.dordt.nl.

Click the image to see the animation

Old pictures of demolished buildings

House de Pauw 1906, Voorstraat-Wine bridge	Postoffice 1903	Hofstraat 1920	Kolfstraat 1930

Riedijk gate 1795	De Oude Doelen, here was held the Synod of Dordrecht 1618-1619	Old Meuse bridge, demolished in the 90s

Kolfstraat 1920	Kromme Elleboog 1950	Hofstraat 1942

Boogjes 1950, part of the old city walls	Johan de Witt bridge and Orange hotel	Johan de Witt Gymnasium	Cornelis de Witt street, on the left barracks of the ponteniers 1620

Cornelis de Witt street, Tea house 1939	Bagijnhof 1900 with horse-tram	Bagijnhof with view to the Visstraat 1900

Bagijnhof with view to the Vest 1900	Bagijnhof Old Woman house 1900

Instead of keeping these historical places we got back ugly new office-buildings, built between old ones, old harbors with modern buildings etc. etc. A demonstration of these "modern" thoughts we can see at the Spuiboulevard, in historical times a place opposite to the old city wall at the Vest and Boogjes, All these beautiful walls are demolished in the 1920s-1960s.

The 20th century, and especially the 1960s, will be written in history as the time in which the Government made a choice for the "GOD" called Money and forgot for to save OUR HISTORY for the coming generations. A sin that will be definitive and never can be turned back. A recent example : In 1990s the local government regretted their sins and they tried to reconstruct part of these old Harbor walls at the Spuiboulevard with UGLY reconstructions, not worth an old city as Dordrecht with its rich history.

The local representatives of the people in the city counsel were also sleeping with their eyes wide open and were too busy with dividing the best jobs available. Democracy in Dordrecht is the same as in all other autocratic Countries, don't listen to the people but do as you like so you can regret your stupid sins later on and blame the other for it.

My personal complains against the present local Government of Dordrecht

What do you do when 80 % of the people is against the cultivation of the Statenplein ?, you build shops were citizens never asked for (Some of them will be empty in a short period of time because of the high rent-prices). A lot of shops at the Voorstraat are still waiting for a renter because the rent-prices are much to high, most of them will stay empty until the local Government have the guts to regulate these prices themselves and force the renters to lower the rent-prices.

Nearly the whole city center is sold to "speculators" who "steal" most of the subsidy's for maintaining historical buildings (Monumentenzorg), they don't care about history but only thinks of money. Only buildings that are owned by particulars are taking care of, but without any subsidy to maintain their property (We own a monument ourselves but never got any subsidy to maintain it). Instead of that we pay a lot of local taxes (OZB) and extra energy taxes while it is forbidden and impossible to insulate a monument to save energy. Finally if we drive to our home with a Car we get a penalty, as a "reward", even when we only bring in goods needed to maintain our monument. Only a-social people don't get a penalty when they drive in our street (Voorstraat-West) because they are afraid for them, this happen nearly every day before our door but when you say something about it they deny it in a brutal way.

The time has come for "real" democracy, the democracy of the people with a referendum for all important decisions regarding our City (like Switzerland).

I challenge the present Council of Dordrecht to refuse any further demolishing of buildings and streets who tells a part of the history of our beloved city. Forget the "economical profits" and save what is left over from our rich history.

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Next : Myths and Legens

Photo's of old Dordrecht

If you have photo's of Dordrecht, old or new please send them to me at webmaster@geerts.com.