De Tuin

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction CONVENT, situated in the closed southern facade wall of the Akerkhof on the corner with the Schoolholm opposite the medieval Akerk, consisting of two building sections, which are separated from each other by a corridor. The eastern section stands on the corner of the Akerkhof south side and the Schoolholm; the western section is placed at an obtuse angle with the building line. The complex was built in 1908 as a convent for the Sisters of Our Lady of Amersfoort to the design of Groninger architect A.Th. van Elmpt in a neo-Gothic building style. The building complex is currently in use as an event centre and has been internally adapted for that purpose with the exception of the chapel on the first storey.

Description The substantial building is built on a deep, rectangular ground plan of reddish-brown brick. The facades of the eastern section are on both sides three window bays wide; the chamfered corner is one bay wide. The western building consists of a bay that projects, an entrance bay and an apse-shaped, three-sided extension. In the hood a tiled turret with stepped gable. The western section consists of a basement above which two storeys under a truncated hipped roof, covered with slates. The present entrance to the complex is accessible via an entrance portal with a rounded arch and sandstone stair (four steps) with wrought-iron railing in the middle of the front facade. The portico is lit by a four-part tall fanlight above a slate-covered canopy. The facade is enlivened with rich brickwork ornamentation with neo-Gothic stylistic characteristics. The windows of the basement, placed in a projecting brick plinth with brown-glazed closure, have profiled sandstone lintels. The left bay is provided with a semicircular extension, which via pendentives on the first storey transitions into a three-sided apse behind which the former chapel of the convent lies. This extension is covered by a three-sided tent roof and is placed against a stepped gable. The high ground-floor frames in the extension are straightclosed under a rounded arch soffit and rest on natural stone seatings. The windows on the storey, as well as those in the eastern side facade are pointed-arch shaped and set in the surrounding, strongly profiled brickwork. The extension is bordered by an arch frieze under the drip gutter. The right bay contains three-part windows with seatings and three-part arch tracery; on the ground floor under a segmental arch combined. Here too the facade is closed with an arch frieze under a drip gutter with slate covering. The eastern section likewise has two storeys, but under a flat roof. The straightclosed windows with refined glazing bars in the fanlights are set between brick wall piers which at the top are closed with brick pilasters projecting above the flat roof. Very characteristic are the coupled rounded-arch shaped relieving arches above the windows, which are combined under a segmental arch. The arch soffits are filled with brick decorations. The facades are at the top closed with relief brickwork. Internally still of importance the chapel on the first storey.

Valuation Convent complex, with a striking facade with exuberant brick decorations in neo-Gothic style to the design of the then well-known Groninger architect A.Th. van Elmpt, of general importance because of its cultural-historical and architectural-historical value as a representative example of ecclesiastical architecture and because of the architectural intactness of the exterior. Moreover, the building is of significance for the social and societal history of the city of Groningen.