The children's walk "Help, the tower falls over!" is a cultural-historical children's city walk through Dordrecht. The walking booklet, which consists of two walking routes (round and pendulum), is available from VVV Dordrecht or in the VVV web shop for € 2.50.
We give a preview of the walk here. Want to walk the whole walk, read all the stories and do a little sleuthing? Then buy the walk booklet at VVV Dordrecht.
The exploration begins at the mayor's house. Well, he may have it temporarily. Actually, it belongs to the city. The mayor is not there often. He sleeps in his own house and works in the City Office. The lions look after City Hall with the basement that used to be a prison. Children were sometimes locked up there for 14 days if they got into mischief.
The Grote Kerk is the largest and oldest building in Dordrecht. Let your eyes go up along the thick tower. It is so crooked, it looks like the tower of Pisa! Workers built the tower for a century but it could not stay straight on its legs. It slowly sank to the side. "Help, the tower is falling over!" the builders cried in panic.
In the center of the square stands a gentleman with wide coat and a brush in his hand. His name is Ary Scheffer and he was a painter by trade. He was born in Dordrecht but followed his mother, who went to live in Paris. There he learned to paint and draw.
At the junction you automatically meet two men from another time. One stands and the other sits. The brothers Johan and Cornelis were two powerful gentlemen. Johan was a council pensioner and today you would say the president of the country. On August 20, 1672, brothers were cruelly murdered by an angry mob. Read in the booklet what the brothers on the bridge whispered to each other at night!
This was a small part of the "roundabout" walk from the booklet "Help, the tower falls over!". The booklet includes a second walk the 'pendulum' which runs along Het Hof, Groothoofd and the Wolwevershaven full of exciting stories.
