Dit is Dordrecht

On an island between four rivers in watery Holland is the country’s oldest city. It was in 1220 when the Count of Holland granted Dordrecht city rights. This meant that Dordrecht could impose tolls on ships sailing into its ports and taxes on trading goods such as wine, wool and wood. Dordrecht became the rich and prosperous port and powerful capital of Holland during the 11th to the 17th century.  It was here that in 1572 the Dutch led by William of Orange got together for the Union of Dordrecht, where they declared themeselves independent of Spain.  Today Rotterdam is a much more important port, The Hague is the city of royal residence and Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands . So Dordrecht’s place in the nation is not so important but it’s charming, pretty and historic.

Statue of de Witt brothers

The train from The Hague via Rotterdam, other cities in the province of Zuid-Holland,  comes in over a huge bridge across one of the rivers. Out the window the view of Dordrecht with the seventy metre tower of the 15th century Grote Kerk (big church) is picturesque. A few hundred metres from the station is the town proper. Charming lop-sided skinny houses line canals and waterways where old boats are moored. There are numerous monuments. Statues of famous citzens of Dordrecht include the de Witt brothers and the artist Ary Scheffer.

Johan de Witt was the Grand Pensionary of the States Holland, more or less leader of the Dutch republic from 1653. Cornelius, his older brother was an important statesman in Dordrecht. They were both lynched and mutilated by an angry mob in 1672 in The Hague after the Dutch lost in the third round of Anglo-Dutch wars. 

The Dordrecht Museum has a room devoted to the de Witt’s with portraits and bronze busts. Another room there features romantic painter Ary Scheffer (1795-1858). Although born in Dordrecht, Scheffer left town fairly young, hot footing it to Paris with his Mum to learn to paint. He learnt well and became a famous painter of sentimental religious and history scenes and a portraitist of high society. He was friends with the likes of Chopin and Dickens and taught the Princess Marie d'Orléans to draw and sculpt.

Before Scheffer, Dordrecht son Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691) was one of the most celebrated of all landscape painters and spent his whole life in The Netherlands. Cuyp paints lovely animals especially cows and his landscapes are drenched in golden light. 'Woman in a stable interior' (left) is a lovely example of his style. Another of his paintings in this museum features a Dutch woman holding a pot of olieballen.

Anonymous is an artist that pops up everywhere and his painting of the Dordrecht quadruplets at the Dordrecht Museum is intriguing. In 1621, quadruplets were born to Cornelia Jans Coensraadsdochter and Jacobus Pieterersz-Costerus in Dordrecht. This was before tabloid magazines and Women’s Weekly so the local Anonymous artist painted the babies. Sadly one baby girl Elisabet lived less than two hours. However the other three little ones Pieter, Jannette and Maria survived and are painted in an uncomfortable vertical position wrapped in tight swaddling cloths. Multiple births at this time must have been rare. Their parents already had four children before them.

The Dordrecht banker Simon van Gijn and his wife Cornelia did not have any children. They bought an 18th century four story house on Nieuwe Haven in Dordrecht in 1864 and Simon, always a collector acquired many beautiful things to put in it. At his death in 1922, he bequested his house and collections to be converted to a museum.  Many of the interiors date from the 17th century including full wall Flemish tapestries, and gilded leather wall coverings, paintings, a print collection, furniture and decorative objects of copper and porcelain. It’s very beautiful. 

The other sort of private property I enter is one of the hofjes Maartenshof Arend (1625). Arend Maartenszoon was known as a money grubber who tried to improve his reputation by providing a home for destitute widows. He built 38 homes for women around a courtyard garden in the Dutch style. There is a beautiful Renaissance Gate with red painted door at the entrance and it is very peaceful inside the garden.

There is a more modern benevolent organisation I discover over lunch. I had a foccacia and coffee at “Den Witten Haen” lunchroom, (The White Rooster lunchroom)which was in the back of a building near the Grote Markt with huge glass windows overlooking a garden. It is part of the Philadelphia foundation, a project for people with an intellectual disability. About 15 of the staff who took and delivered my order in well mannered English, have an intellectual disability.My waiter appeared thrilled with himself that he remembered to say “You’re welcome” in response to my “Thankyou”. Charming, as is all of Dordrecht.