Groningen with Martini Tower by Patricia Hofmeester

About "Groningen with Martini Tower"

by Patricia Hofmeester

About the artwork

St Jansstraat in Groningen overlooking the Martini Tower

The Martinitoren is one of the symbols of the city of Groningen. It is the city's most famous and tallest tower. Groningers also affectionately call the tower D'Olle Grieze (the old grey one).

Two other towers previously stood on the spot where Martinitoren now stands. The first one was built in the 13th century and was about 30 metres high. This structure can still be found on the seal of the city of Groningen. A lightning strike in 1408 destroyed the first tower.

Some twenty years later, the Martini church was extended in Gothic style and a new tower was also built. This second tower was about forty-five metres high. It was built of stone and wood and collapsed in 1468. A few years earlier, a large fire had raged in the tower after a lightning strike.

Construction of the current tower began in 1469. According to some reports, this tower was already completed in 1482, except for the upper part. However, this seems very quick. The construction of the Dom in Utrecht, for example, took around 60 years at the time.

The spire of the third Martinitoren was covered with slate and a gilded sphere was placed on top, topped by a more than sixteen-metre high iron cross, with a Saint Martin on horseback as the weather vane. The tower was now 118 metres high, quite a bit higher than the current tower. However, the old top section was lost in a fire in 1577. In the early seventeenth century, Martinitoren was given a new top section. This tower, renewed in 1627, was about 97 metres high, as it is now.