Tour of Dordrecht's gable stones

Above the columns of the City Hall you can see the city arms of Dordrecht. It is held by two griffins, a cross between an eagle and lion. The Stadhuis was built in 1383 as a covered market hall and inaugurated as the "Stedehuys" in 1544.

The building de Gulden Os (1523) with its natural stone Gothic stepped gable is one of the oldest houses in Dordrecht. The gilded animal at the very top of the building recalls the many butchers who worked in this neighborhood.

One of the city's finest Renaissance houses and the former fishermen's guild house from 1608. The adjacent building is the former house De Steur. The rich fish buyers gathered in their guild house De Crimpert Salm. The salmon received a blow to the nose and gill causing it to shrink. Thus the blood migrated through the fish where it obtained its pink color. The third blow only meant death.

Holland's oldest brewery De Sleutel is said to have been founded here in 1433 and in its heyday occupied several premises. One was opposite the gate with the keys from 1612 and was named 't Biervat (no.75-77). It served as a storage place for cleaned lager barrels.

Gable stone at the corner of Aardappelmarkt and Kuipershaven. The stone depicts Saint Joost with a Bible and pilgrim's staff. The Saint Joost chapel that stood on this spot was demolished in about 1580, but years later a house was built here. To commemorate the chapel, the house was named Saint Joost. He sits between two trees with his king's crown in the left tree, which he literally hung in the willows.

At the very ridge of the great patrician house you can see a carved Chronos, or Father Time, displaying two family crests. On his head he carries an hourglass, as a sign of impermanence and the transience of life. On the wings to the left and right of the hourglass are a bat and an eagle.

This building was built in 1715 by Liege ironmonger Jacob Jacobse. In front of the door, Liege ships were moored in the harbor, delivering hand-forged nails in baskets. One such basket can still be seen in the ornamental ironwork above the door.

This complex (1700) has a neck gable rare for Dordrecht. The neck is flanked by sculpted claw pieces and decorative vases. Around 1800, the building came into the hands of O.B. 't Hooft. He was a trader in madder, a red vegetable dye that was widely traded in Dordrecht. He must have given the building its current name 'het Meevat'.

The old, late Gothic city gate was built around 1440-1450 and was enclosed in 1617-1618 by a new Renaissance gate, which defines the current image. On the land side of the gate is the city coat of arms of Dordrecht, on the water side an image of the Dordrecht city virgin.

The gable stone of Wijnstraat 15-17 clearly indicates that this was the former headquarters of the seafaring skippers. At the guild parties, there was no regard for a barrel of beer or less.

The façade (18th century) is the so-called Dordt type, a late Gothic masonry model found throughout the river area. Above it a stepped gable with the gable stone In den Hen from 1630. The entire building was restored in 1977.

This building from 1650 gets its name from the naked boy in the tympanum, also called the Manneke Pis of Dordt. The house is an example of the Dutch Classical style.

In 1556, this building was built in early Renaissance or Tudor style as the residence of the mayor's family Van Beveren. In 1650, Mayor Abraham van Beveren ordered the construction of the adjacent property De Onbeschaamde. Thereafter, This is in Beverenburgh was used as a servants' residence.

From 1367 to 1806, the Munt was the place where the coins of the province of Holland were minted by order of Emperor Charles V according to exclusive law. When you walk under the Muntpoort you will see at the end the door of the Muntmeestershuis with the Coat of Arms of Holland above it.

In The Court sits a gablestone of the Heelhaak Shooting Company. A Heelhaak was a firearm that could be secured with a hook to catch the recoil. The gablestone depicts two such weapons. The militia was based here from 1574 to 1832, after the First Free States Assembly was held there in July 1572. The stone will have been installed after a renovation of the former monastery.

The first five buildings on Hofstraat are copies or compositions of demolished houses. The facade of Hofstraat 8 is a copy of a house burned down in 1956 in Grote Spuistraat. The facade stone is also a (synthetic) copy. Surgeon Dirck d'Exter laid plasters, but surely in those days God was the master.

Hofstraat 12 is indeed an original building and has been in the street for a few centuries. The facade stone Aecken originally sat in a gateway in Kolfstraat, right there next to 't Napolitaensche Peerdt. Aecken also had to make way for V&D's expansion plans, and the stone was moved here in 1973. A resident of Aachen (like Dordrecht a Rhine city) will have had the facade stone made.

The facade stone at 22 Court Street goes back to the Bible story about Samson, the man who derived his enormous strength from his long hair and in captivity toppled the pillars of a temple
causing thousands of Philistines to die, himself included. Those who can handle opulence and wealth are stronger than Samson. The stone once sat in a warehouse on the Kuipershaven.

This little gate once stood in front of the Old Women's House in the Bagijnhof. The poem by moralizing poet Jacob Cats is not very woman-friendly:
Hiet hier werden onderhouwen oude koude, swacke vrouwen
Proud spinsters, proud jeucht, see how that you became meucht.
At the restoration of the gate in 1896 this verse was chiseled back on. The gate then also got a female in the medallion again.

In Nieuwstraat 23 a very nicely detailed stone, int green cloth. Cloth was made from wool and that was a dirty and unhealthy business. The stone was once in a house on Voorstraat, and that must have been a cloth dealer

The latest facade stone, with the Van der Mandele family coat of arms: fish and rosettes. The Van der Mandele Foundation provides social, social and cultural support. The foundation had this building in Dordrecht restored in 1975 and placed the small stone as a memorial.

This facade stone from 1585 has a somewhat gloomy outlook: the werlt is opt endt 1585. Bleak times. The Eighty Years' War had begun and in 1585 Antwerp had fallen into Spanish hands. Yet the maker still joked by placing a globe with cross on a duck (endt). The world is on the duck/at the end. The stone once sat in a house on the Grotekerkbuurt.

Italian atmospheres at number 30! According to the text, the prancing horse comes from Naples. The stone was once in a building in Kolfstraat that was demolished for the new construction of V&D. While it is believed that the facade stone depicts Spanish rule in Italy, it is more plausible that the patron was from Naples. A Neapolitan was a popular breed of horse in the 18th century.

At number 40 a woman's head, perhaps made by Gilles Huppe who carved statues in Dordrecht around 1610. The house, a Dordts Gevel, stood across the street until 1973 but the facade was picked up in its entirety in 1973 and moved here to make room for Statenplein. The beautiful woman was probably once in a house on the Riedijk.

Above the gate a fragment of a stone that once was located behind a brewery on Voorstraat. The year can no longer be determined: 160? The arms are of the De Witt families (left, a leaping hare, pursued by two different dogs) and Scarlet (a crescent moon and three roses).

There is a facade stone at 52 Nieuwstraat that immediately raises many questions. The stone was dredged up from the Nieuwe Haven in 1956 and placed here in 1977. Was the stone once in the house Den Dubbelen Arent on Wijnstraat? But then how did the stone get into the harbor? And why? Questions to which there are still no answers.