Remarkable buildings and monuments

‘t Zeepaert

Wijnstraat 113

The façade of ‘t Zeepaert dates from 1495 and is the oldest visible façade in Dordrecht. It is built from heavy blocks of Namur stone, a natural stone from near Namur in Belgium.

• A stone house already stood on this spot around 1300.
• In 1583 a soap boiler lived here. The soap was probably made in the back yard, which later became a brewery.
• Inside you can still find a timber frame and a painted oak ceiling.
• The Hendrick de Keyser association bought the house in 1996 and restored it from 2001 to 2004.
• Note: it is the oldest façade, not necessarily the oldest building. Many younger façades in Dordrecht hide even older houses. Building historians track them down by dating the wood of beams and roof trusses.

Stokholm warehouse

Wolwevershaven 30

One of the most impressive warehouses in town. Above the attic windows you can read MDCCXXX: 1730. The rear gables rise straight out of the water of the Oude Maas.

• It is named after its builder, the merchant Johan Anthony Bruijn, who was born in Stockholm.
• It started out as a sugar refinery with six copper pans, a lot for the time. It was not a success: Bruijn went bankrupt within a few years.
• Later it served as a warehouse, for madder and grain among other things.
• It was restored in 1962-1963 and now houses offices.
• The steam tug Pieter Boele, whose home port is the Wolwevershaven, is often moored in front.

Bergen in Noorwegen

Schrijversstraat 16-18

A building with a name you would not expect in Dordrecht: “Bergen in Norway”. The façade carries a sign reading BERGEN IN NOORWEGEN and coats of arms, three of the original five.

• It was originally a double warehouse.
• From 1904 it was the boiler house of the Royal Dutch Glass Factory Bouvy, located on the Kuipershaven from 1848 to 1926. The factory made window glass, mirrors, curved glass and stained-glass windows, among other things.
• After a fire, it got a new front façade and a mansard roof in 1922.
• From 1929 it housed a printing works. Part of the old factory chimney still stands in the garden.
• It is a municipal monument. The façade does not explain where the name comes from: a nice puzzle to solve yourself.

The station

Stationsplein 1

Arrive by train and you step straight into a national monument. The station opened on 1 January 1872, for the railway from Rotterdam to Antwerp.

• The building is no less than 108 metres long and runs parallel to the tracks.
• It was built in the round-arch style, with red brick, arched windows and a clock in the pediment above the entrance.
• The station hall with its ticket counters is still largely original, with tiled wainscoting and pilasters.
• The iron platform canopy from 1900 is a separate national monument.

City hall

Stadhuisplein 1

The city hall has a special spot: it stands right across the Voorstraathaven. It began in the 14th century as a cloth hall, a trading hall for cloth.

• On the harbour side you can still see Gothic arches from the 14th century.
• The lions by the steps were cast in 1841.
• The tower holds bells from 1449 and 1514.
• Since 1975 the council has been based in the Stadskantoor. The city hall is now mainly used for events and receptions.

The Groothoofdspoort

Groothoofd

Dordrecht’s best-known city gate, where the Merwede, the Oude Maas and the Noord meet.

• The façades date from 1618; the domed tower was added in 1692.
• On the river side you can see the Maid of Dordrecht in the Garden of Holland, made by Gillis Huppe. Around her are fifteen city coats of arms, and she holds the arms of Dordrecht herself: together sixteen cities that rose up in the Eighty Years’ War.
• The Latin inscription says that unity and peace are the best defence of a city.

The Hendrick de Keyser association

Monuments that stay lived in

The Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser was founded in 1918 and is named after the Amsterdam architect and sculptor Hendrick de Keyser (1565-1621). The association buys special historic houses, restores them carefully and rents them out again, so that people keep living in them.

In Dordrecht the association owns quite a number of houses. Take a good look at the façades of these houses:

• ‘t Zeepaert, Wijnstraat 113: the oldest visible façade in town (1495).
• De Onbeschaamde, Wijnstraat 123: designed around 1650 by Pieter Post for mayor Abraham van Beveren. The name (“the shameless one”) refers to the naked cherub in the pediment.
• In Beverenburch, Wijnstraat 127: from 1556, with an early Renaissance façade of white Belgian stone.
• Huis Rodenburch, Wijnstraat 153: once an inn where the Counts of Holland stayed, later a pawnshop. It got a Rococo façade in 1766.
• Wijnstraat 124-128: a stepped gable of the typical Dordrecht kind.
• Het Meevat, Kuipershaven 41: built around 1700 for the nail merchant Huybert Borret and first called ‘Het Spijckervat’ (the nail barrel). From 1906 it housed an umbrella factory.
• Voorstraat 173: rebuilt in 1609. Nearly demolished around 1950, but saved by the local heritage society Oud-Dordrecht.
• Grotekerksbuurt 54 and 56: two houses on the old harbour. A skipper already lived here in 1557.
• Most of these houses are lived in, so please admire them from the street.
• Tip: the association regularly organises a city walk in Dordrecht (in Dutch). See the Hendrick de Keyser calendar.