Old winery

About this artwork.

Groningen City Hall, whose construction was completed in 1810, is not the first building where city officials met. The old council and winery previously graced the Grote Markt (then Breede Merct) for more than three and a half centuries (1443 – 1774). The colored engraving by Hermanus Numan (1744 - 1820), engraver, copyist and painter, depicts the Council and Wine House that stood there until 1775.

The old winery was built a few meters next to it shortly after the renovation of the City Hall. The winery was more substantial, but both bore similarities in their stepped gables, pinnacles, and arched windows. Until the beginning of the eighteenth century, there was a tower of about 40 meters high on top of the winery, containing a clockwork. Like several Hanseatic cities, Groningen also got its own city winery or cellar.

In the winery, the administrators and other persons in charge of city offices gathered and discussed the worries of the day over a glass of wine. Public leases and leases of city properties or jurisdictions and goods in the surrounding areas also took place in the winery. Under the winery was a large wine cellar, but sometimes it was too small for the large stock. In 1703 the tenant of the winery even got permission to use a part of the prison under the council and winery, intended for serious criminals, as a wine cellar.

In the course of the eighteenth century, the council and winery became increasingly dilapidated. Every reason for Mayor Anthony van Iddekinghe and his companion and advisor Professor Petrus Camper to launch a competition in 1775 for a new City Hall. At the time, it was the first architectural competition in the Netherlands. In 1775, the old council and winery on the Grote Markt was demolished. It took until 1810, mainly because of financial shortages and to a lesser extent also because of the French Period, before the new City Hall was completed. For years, therefore, meetings were held in a building on the Oude Boteringestraat.

Facts & Figures.

• Artist(s)
  Hermanus Numan

• Year of creation
  Unknown

• Dimensions (in cm)
  42x49

• Collection
  Town Hall Collection

• Technic
  Colored engraving