Bestuursgebouw en onderdl, Grote Markt 1

English translation

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Description

TOWN HALL. The present building originated from the combination of the house "de Oliphant", the courthouse and the house "Leeuwenberg"; the latter two were provided with a natural stone facade in 1611. The actual courthouse, between Oliphant and Leeuwenberg, was built after 1397, when the previous one had burned down. Leeuwenberg, mentioned in 1461, in 1480 trading consulate of the English merchants, was purchased by the city in 1498. On the west side (left) of the courthouse was traditionally a gate to the St. Annastraat and an upper dwelling, "De Oliphant" which was purchased by the city in 1516 to establish the office of the Rent-masters and the Orphanage-masters there. The combination of Leeuwenberg and courthouse was carried out by mr. Joachim van den Delft and mr. Geeraet van Eyck, respectively sculptor and stonemason at Antwerp. The facade is finished with small crenellations; the central bay, decorated with figures in niches, is crowned by a gable with volutes and obelisks. The portico was added during the restoration in 1932-1938 by J. van Heeswijk, replacing a double staircase with vases and lions from 1740. The ground-floor windows and the entrance are covered by rendered and profiled elliptical arches and contain, like the upper windows and the windows on the St. Annastraat, stone cross windows. Against the rear facades, renewed in 1619, renovated in 1917, stands a round staircase tower with natural stone bands, a stone with the date 1389 (in renewed letters) and a lead cross finial. The east side of this courtyard behind the building is occupied by a wing with a closed ground-floor gallery of hardstone columns with profiled octagonal pedestals and with cabbage-leaf capitals, upon which rest basket-arches with natural stone blockwork (16th century) and an upper storey from 1638 (as shown by year anchors) with natural stone bands, windows with elliptical arches and at the north end a stepped gable. This rear side was restored in 1954. On the north side of the square a wall against which stand two hardstone columns like those of the gallery and topped by shield-bearing lions. Between the columns a small gate covered by a basket-arch. Internally two cellars with cross-rib vaults on two natural stone columns, in the manner of Scheldt Gothic and remnant of an older building (second half of the thirteenth century). In the hall a ceiling with beams on profiled corbels (second half of the fifteenth century) and a late Gothic natural stone fireplace moved here from elsewhere with rank frieze around the mantel. Under the bressumers in the Great Hall profiled keystones and corbels (second half of the fifteenth century). In the wedding hall a richly carved fireplace, made in 1521 by Rombout Keldermans, brought here from the Markiezenhof in 1840. This monumental work is decorated with a large relief, depicting St. Christopher flanked by lions with banners bearing the coats of arms of Glymes and Brimeu; late Gothic and Renaissance ornamental motifs interwoven. In these halls portraits of successive lords of Bergen. Carved staircase from 1619 to the upper storey. Councillors' chamber with seventeenth-century oak fireplace and wall cabinets (first half of the eighteenth century) and stucco ceiling from 1753. In the other rooms ceiling with beams with profiled keystones. In the gable top a clock, made in 1614 by Peeter van den Gheyn. The facade of the adjoining house "De Oliphant" is occupied at ground level by the wide elliptical gate arch to the St. Annastraat, under a rendered arch, and a room next to it, which in the 15th century served as a shop. The upper part was somewhat adapted to the new town hall facade in 1611 and is crowned by two roof dormers with cross windows and stepped gables which were rebuilt during the restoration according to old images.