Landhuis, Menkemaweg 2

English translation

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Description

Description

MAIN BUILDING (Menkemaborg). Centrally on the square fortified enclosure lies the three-aisled main building erected on a rectangular ground plan, originally dating from the 14th century (see building traces south-east facade), and in 1705 remodelled by architect Allert Meijer to its present appearance. The brick building comprises three parallel structural bodies beneath three gabled roofs covered with glazed Old Dutch tiles, of which the first is terminated by stepped gables and the remainder by top gables with chimneys. The front chimneys are fitted with decorative elements in the form of hares. The first two structural bodies consist of two storeys and an attic storey; the rear structural body consists of a basement with upper rooms and an attic storey. Datestone in the north-east facade. In front of the house, extending over its entire length, is a rectangular forecourt fitted with two pavilions on the corners. These square, tower-shaped buildings are covered by a cupola roof covered with slate fitted with lead corner strips bearing coat of arms shields and crowned by a pinnacle. The symmetrically arranged front facade has centrally the framed entrance door with rectangular fanlight containing a decoration of stylised acanthus leaves and above the cornice a sandstone (painted) crowning bearing the alliances coat of arms of the builder (Alberda - Van Berum). On either side of the entrance section one narrow five-pane and four ten-pane sash windows on the ground floor (late eighteenth-century enlargement of the windows) and multi-pane lights on the upper storey fitted with sandstone upper and lower sills and shutters. Attached to the front facade is the service bell, bearing the inscription 'WILHELMUS JACOBUS DE VRY ME FECIT Aº 1655'. In the rear facade a row of four-pane cellar lights with shutter, above which the upper rooms with in the middle of the facade two multi-pane lights with shutter flanked by two (times two) cloister windows. Both side facades have a fairly regular arrangement with multi-pane sash windows, cloister windows and square window lights, partly with shutter. The INTERIOR is characterised by the well-preserved 18th-century spatial division consisting of a long corridor as the central axis with rooms on either side. The oldest component is the kitchen with service quarters located in the basement in the rear building. This space formed part of the 14th-century stone house. During the remodelling of 1700-1705 this space was fitted out as a kitchen. Among the important elements of the 18th-century decoration of the interior are: the four carved oak fireplace mantels designed by Allert Meijer, carved by sculptor Jan de Rijk and with mythological paintings by Hermannus Collenius; the bedroom with the early 18th-century state bed after Daniël Marot and stained-glass windows by Jacob Tewes; in the gentlemen's room a painted built-in sideboard; in the front room a simple fireplace mantel from circa 1780; the velvet wallpaper of 1700-1705 in the counting room. Cabinet organ by J.J. Vool from 1777.

Valuation

MAIN BUILDING (Menkemaborg) of general importance:

- on account of its age; - on account of the development of an originally medieval fortified house into the present building which owes its appearance to a remodelling from 1705 designed by architect Allert Meijer; - on account of the well-preserved 18th-century spatial division and decoration of the interior; - as a representative example of a Groningen fortified house; - on account of the functional-spatial relationship with the other components of the estate.