Leather monuments

The most important decisions for the city of Dordrecht fell in this colossal building. But city officials were not the first users. Merchants who had fled from Bruges had this Gothic stock exchange building built in 1383 to trade in fabrics. From 1544, it was a representative administrative temple and political arena called city council. The city hall is also a school of learning for Marital Happiness. Lovers connect in marriage here.
In between, City Hall has undergone a major makeover. Between 1834 and 1845, a neoclassical facade was erected, complete with iron lions and Greek-looking columns.

The Golden Ox, suffused atop the stepped gable, watches over the main center of knowledge. Its throne is the bluestone stepped gable, which has graced the Gothic building since 1523. It has housed the public library since 1986. Here "knowledge and skills" come together in the form of books, computers and workshops.
Café Americain is the meeting place. It takes its name from a formerly trendsetting American-style café-restaurant and function room on the same site. The Golden Ox has survived many demolition plans. But fortunately, knowledge eventually won out over all the foolish planners.

The Berckepoort is one of the oldest monumental residential buildings in the Netherlands. The complex of buildings dates from the mid-16th century. Its namesake was Matthijs Berck, an influential wine seller with friends in the highest circles, who liked to come to drink and stay. The Duke of Alva, as well as his enemy Lumey, the leader of the Geuzen, could count on hospitality. William of Orange also enjoyed staying in Dordrecht.
In the 18th century, the Berck family died out, after which the city council of Dordrecht purchased it. The Berckepoort fell into disrepair. Nevertheless, it still received educational uses, such as a room for anatomy lessons, association room, French school and girls' school. Starting in 1997, ToBe courses honed the creative minds of Dordrechters there, but since the move in 2013, it has been a hollow building.

Het Hof is a gathering place of rich Dordrecht, religious and Dutch history. The buildings around the square were part of a monastery complex from 1275. Augustinian mendicant monks lived and worked here, but prayed in the nearby Augustinian Church. They had access to a library, brewery and infirmary.
The monks left, after which political and political history was made in 1572. By order of William of Orange, the First Free States Assembly was convened. The secret meeting led to an organized revolt against the Spanish ruler and - unintentionally - to the formation of the Dutch state.
The halls were cleared for the poorest of Dordrecht in 1837. Children worked and rarely attended school. At the public poor school, the least well-off received free education; others paid a small amount. If three children from one family attended school, the amount amounted to one cent per day. Thus it soon acquired the name "penny school.
Now it houses the museum Het Hof van Nederland, well worth a visit.

The high platform of a former mayor's house on Voorstraat 190-192 gives access to Pictura, the oldest artists' society in the Netherlands. Since 1774, working artists and art lovers have gathered there to sketch, etch, paint and celebrate spiritual freedom while talking and drinking. The meeting place has been this house Oostenrijck since 1901, before that they changed places more often.
Painter Abraham van Strij and his friends founded the society after an inspiring day out on the Island of Dordrecht. Upon moving to "Oostenrijck," thirteen artists were given their own studios and exhibition spaces, unique in the Netherlands. Pictura aims to be a stage for contemporary art and organizes several exhibitions a year.

Dordrecht once had eighteen city gates. The Groothoofd gate was spared. The structure was bricked up between 1440 and 1450. Only in 1640 was it given the name Groothoofdspoort. It deserved that grand name because a new Renaissance gate was built over the original late Gothic gate. From 1692, an octagonal dome adorned the main city gate.
The place was the main harborhead. Dordrecht citizens, foreigners, as well as emperors and kings landed there. The entrance suited their status. The last monarch to arrive by ship was King Willem-Alexander on April 27, 2015, with Queen Maxima in his wake.

This is Dordrecht's least tangible but perhaps most important monument. It is constructed entirely of Light, Air and Water. Here you experience the city on an island. In a grand gesture, the rivers Merwede, Noord and Oude Maas come together at the Drierivierenpunt.
Poets, writers and painters came especially to this spot, and lost themselves in elation at the vast sight. They watched a natural spectacle, pray the famous Dutch light. Foreign artists went in search of the seventeenth-century city of the famous painter Aelbert Cuyp in this dream setting.

The Damiate Bridge (1855) offers a beautiful view of the Wolwevershaven. The harbor had long been a lively transshipment point for goods, including timber and wine. By 1880, trade was virtually finished in Dordrecht. What remained was steam towing, of which a single ship (Pieter Boele) has survived. A dead port it is not. On the old barges, the "brown fleet," new owners live with their families. With great dedication they maintain and repair this maritime heritage.
Along the quay are Dordrecht's most beautiful houses. Very worthwhile are the buildings numbered 9 (Patrician house, Museum on the Maas), 21 (House the Mermaids) and 30 (Stokholm warehouse).

L. Straatman's ship lift is a landmark in Wolwevershaven. Since 1902, the ship lift has been part of the machine and boiler factory on the quay and for a century provided ships with new rudders or propellers. But with the disappearance of industry from the inner city, the dock lost its function and dignity. It once partly collapsed. After a joint effort by private persons, entrepreneurs and the municipality of Dordrecht, the screw dock could be restored. Since 2018, Straatman has once again been the proud eye-catcher.

The Vleeshouwersstraat, once the domain of small butchers, is now one of Dordrecht's nicest couleur locale streets. But it would have been close to being demolished. In 1984 Woningbouwvereniging Vooruitgang learned a lesson from the overly rigorous urban rehabilitation of the 1960s and decided to save the impoverished buildings. The restoration project marked a turn in thinking and became an example for the city and the country.
Halfway down the street (No. 27) stands the only modernly designed house, by architect Abe Bonnema. The ox head further up high on the facade was hung above his tannery and shoemaking shop in 1835 by M.J. Brugman of Antwerp.

This is the end of the walk.