Dordrecht Google map
Netherlands
Photos by Hetty
2nd July 2024
Dordrecht is at the confluence of several major rivers and the canals here are called harbours, which have lots of pleasure boats. We followed a historic city walk that we bought at the tourist office. It was a town in 1120, a city in 1220 and the oldest city in the province of Holland. A moat was dug around it in 1271.
Models of Dordrecht now and then
There are several courtyards of almshouses: this one was founded in 1775
Another courtyard from 1660 with 38 houses for women with a well. There is a Regents’ Room that was used when the regents who ran the almshouses met here.
Left – The white building has been a distillery since 1872. Next door on the right dates from 1777 – a lot of these buildings lean forward slightly to make it easier to hoist goods to the upper floors
The white house has the date 1556. The facade with the naked boy on the right dates from 1650
They grey house [left] with red shutters was built in 1495 on foundations from 1300
Both sides of a city gate
Double cast iron bridge from 1855
Old ships
The 1928 ship lift raised ships partly out of the water so the rudders or propellers could be repaired.
In the distance is the Grote Kerk with a leaning tower and 67 bells
Left – A city gate 1652. Right – a warehouse from 1776
All the old towns we visited have roads and pavements of brick or cobbles that they take up and replace when doing works, so there are no patches of different colour tarmac
Left – In 1383 this was a cloth hall. It became the City Hall in 1544 and gained a new front 1835-45.
Left – The De Witt brothers, murdered in 1672, wrongly accused of betraying William of Orange. Right – A Brewery building
Het Hof, once a monastery from 1275, where the First Assembly of the States of Holland was held in 1572, declaring independence from Spain.
An old school
William of Orange.
The acades of these buildings were moved here in the 1960s.
A bank in a new street 1870
These are the oldest almshouses in Dordrecht – from 1519 and 1542
