Groninger Museum

English translation

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Description

Introduction MUSEUM BUILDING, free-standing situated at the end of the Praediniussingel, built in phases in the period 1894-1907 according to the design of C.H. Peters, State Architect in Groningen from 1884 to 1916, in the neo-Gothic building style characteristic of Peters. The original design was limited to the western wings, the spout gable and the entrance section. The east wing dates from 1902 and the rear wing from 1907, with which the building acquired a U-shaped floor plan. The most recent extension was completed in 1978 according to the design of architect Daae and falls outside the protection. The interior has been modernized. The building is currently still in use as a museum. Description The monumental building is erected on an H-shaped floor plan and comprises two storeys under gabled roofs, covered with slate in Maas-bond. The facades are erected in orange-red brick. The western facade is three bays wide. The basement is executed in grey-brown brick and is covered with a chamfered list of hard stone. The recessed windows are closed off with segmental arches. In the drums figurative symbols in relief are applied. The windows have a stepped sill. Over two storeys the windows are grouped in a list with pearl moulding. The facade is enlivened with white bands and drip mouldings. Under the gable top is a relieving arch frieze. The gable top is articulated by three-quarter shafts with three narrow windows. Above this is a second row of shafts with trefoils. On the shoulders stand pointed knobs. The entrance section has a hard stone staircase, which leads to a heavy double wooden entrance door with a semi-circular fanlight and trefoil tracery. The built-up bay window on the floor rests on a barrel vault and corbels above the entrance. The eastern wing comprises four wide window bays, between which buttresses are applied. The basement has four straight-headed windows with hard stone profiles here. In the front roof shield are two wooden roof dormers with trefoils. The western side gable comprises six bays and is articulated and designed in the same manner as the western part of the front facade. Evaluation Museum building, an entirely free-standing structure with very finely detailed facades and carefully designed in neo-Gothic building style, of general importance because of its cultural-historical and architectural-historical value because of its exceptional beauty and because of its significance for art history as an important representative of historicizing museum architecture around 1900. Furthermore, the building, forming part of the valuable building along the Praediniussingel and lying in the sight line across the canal to the north, is such a very important element in the high-quality urban planning structure of the ring of canals along the south side of the inner city of Groningen.