City Hall of Tilburg
Encyclopedia
The City hall of Tilburg or Palace-Council House (Dutch
: Paleis-Raadhuis) is a former royal palace
and part of the present city hall
of the municipality Tilburg
, in the Netherlands
. The construction of the palace was commissioned by King William II of the Netherlands
, who placed the foundation stone himself on the 13th of August 1847. The king wanted to have a country residence in Tilburg. Though, he never lived in the palace as he died on the 17th of March 1849, only 22 days before the completion of the palace at the 7th of April 1849.
The palace has been build by Adriaan Goijaerts, a well known contractor and carpenter from Tilburg. On the 7th of July 1847 Goijaerts accepted the commission from William II of the Netherlands for the sum of ƒ 57,000.- guilders. Goijaerts completed the palace at on the 7th of April 1849. Since it’s completion the building served different purposes. The palace has been rebuilt thoroughly twice, from 1865 to 1960 and from 1934 to 1936 to give the palace a different purpose. The palace has been used as a school and as the city hall of the municipality Tilburg. The school offered secular
tuition on high school level. The Dutch
painter Vincent van Gogh
has been the school’s most famous student. In 1931 the palace was finally donated by the Dutch royal family to the municipality Tilburg. During the second world war the palace was used as an observation point to observe the night sky in order to detect hostile aeroplanes
. The palace lost it’s main function in 1971 when a much larger and more modern building was completed. This building got connected to the palace through a sky bridge
at the north side of the palace. Since then the Palace is majorly used as a location for wedding ceremonies
, lectures
, oath-takings
and symposia
.
William II had bought these houses behind the church of the Heike quarter, presently known as the Saint Denis church, and let the houses rebuild into a sober palace. Though, when William II succeeded his father in 1840 as king of the Netherlands, the former palace didn’t had the royal airs which befitted his new status. Thus a new palace had to be constructed. It was the boy’s dream of the king that was about to get fulfilled. The former palace has been demolished in 1847.
and royal master builder Jan C. Boon were involved into the draft.
Typical to the draft is the basement, which is for about the 60% subterranean and 40% above the ground. It was common among houses, castles and palaces. On top of the basement is localised the piano nobile
. This was the most important and most impressive storey
of the building and was majorly used to receive guests. Notable to this draft are the four rank and round stairway towers that adjoins the building at each of the four angles of the building. These form four independent stairwells
and lead from the basement up to the piano nobile and the second floor.
, a new type of high school for secular
education. This new type of school was aimed at young people from the bourgeoisie to prepare them for 'higher' positions in society, and was better adapted than the popular Latin school
to the economic demands of a constantly changing society. It was meant for that part of the middle class youth which didn't need a scientific education, but required a broad general knowledge to fulfil important positions in trade
and industry
.
Vincent van Gogh
, then 13 years old, attended classes in 1866 and left the school for unknown reasons in 1868. With an average rating of 7,36, Vincent was an average student.
and made the building more gothic
than it has ever been by replacing the square windows with lancet windows
. The thin and slender towers near the entrace with the pinnacles
on them were replaced by a middle risalit
with an entrance made in art deco
style. When the alteration was finished in 1936, the Palace-Council House was brought into use by mayor
Frans Vonk de Both on the 1st of August 1936.
At the east side, above the entrance to the basement a half circular balcuny was built. With a likewise half circular extension for a new and elegant stairwell which contains a broad marble spiral staircase which leads to the second floor. In the circular extension one can find stained glass
windows made by stained-glass artist Joep Nicolas. The scenes formed in the stained glass express the virtues of a number of the administrators through figures from the classical antiquity
.
On the second floor three halls were built. One big wedding room in the north wing and a big hall for the city council itself, complete with a press tribune, in the southern wing. A smaller room was specially for the alderman
, which is between the wedding room and the hall for the city council. On the lintel beam
a fresco
is made by Henri Sicking. It’s a symbolical representation of a prosperous future in an urban society of culture and economy. Expressed by a woman flanked by a man and a woman, while she writes on a banner which has been draped over a book support with the Latin words: 'CVLTVRA' and 'OECONOMIA' on it. The latter is derived from the Ancient Greek
οἰκονομία. Respectively these words mean: 'culture' and 'economy'.
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
: Paleis-Raadhuis) is a former royal palace
Palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the...
and part of the present city hall
City hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall or a municipal building or civic centre, is the chief administrative building of a city...
of the municipality Tilburg
Tilburg
Tilburg is a landlocked municipality and a city in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of Noord-Brabant.Tilburg municipality also includes the villages of Berkel-Enschot and Udenhout....
, in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. The construction of the palace was commissioned by King William II of the Netherlands
William II of the Netherlands
William II was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg from 7 October 1840 until his death in 1849.- Early life and education :...
, who placed the foundation stone himself on the 13th of August 1847. The king wanted to have a country residence in Tilburg. Though, he never lived in the palace as he died on the 17th of March 1849, only 22 days before the completion of the palace at the 7th of April 1849.
The palace has been build by Adriaan Goijaerts, a well known contractor and carpenter from Tilburg. On the 7th of July 1847 Goijaerts accepted the commission from William II of the Netherlands for the sum of ƒ 57,000.- guilders. Goijaerts completed the palace at on the 7th of April 1849. Since it’s completion the building served different purposes. The palace has been rebuilt thoroughly twice, from 1865 to 1960 and from 1934 to 1936 to give the palace a different purpose. The palace has been used as a school and as the city hall of the municipality Tilburg. The school offered secular
Secularity
Secularity is the state of being separate from religion.For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them...
tuition on high school level. The Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
painter Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
has been the school’s most famous student. In 1931 the palace was finally donated by the Dutch royal family to the municipality Tilburg. During the second world war the palace was used as an observation point to observe the night sky in order to detect hostile aeroplanes
Fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
. The palace lost it’s main function in 1971 when a much larger and more modern building was completed. This building got connected to the palace through a sky bridge
Skyway
In an urban setting, a skyway, catwalk, sky bridge, or skywalk is a type of pedway consisting of an enclosed or covered bridge between two buildings. This protects pedestrians from the weather. These skyways are usually owned by businesses, and are therefore not public spaces...
at the north side of the palace. Since then the Palace is majorly used as a location for wedding ceremonies
Wedding
A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
, lectures
Lecture
thumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...
, oath-takings
Oath
An oath is either a statement of fact or a promise calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear is to take an oath, to make a solemn vow...
and symposia
Academic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
.
Location
The new royal palace got built in the backyard of the former palace. This former ‘palace’ was in fact a a row of houses pulled together; the crown prince purchased these in 1835 from a family called Frankenhoff. Crown princeCrown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
William II had bought these houses behind the church of the Heike quarter, presently known as the Saint Denis church, and let the houses rebuild into a sober palace. Though, when William II succeeded his father in 1840 as king of the Netherlands, the former palace didn’t had the royal airs which befitted his new status. Thus a new palace had to be constructed. It was the boy’s dream of the king that was about to get fulfilled. The former palace has been demolished in 1847.
Draft
According the legend king William II has made the first sketches for his palace himself, after the neo-gothic building style he knew from his childhood in England. But it’s very likely that drawing teacher Frederik Lodewijk Huijgens of the royal military academy in BredaBreda
Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...
and royal master builder Jan C. Boon were involved into the draft.
Typical to the draft is the basement, which is for about the 60% subterranean and 40% above the ground. It was common among houses, castles and palaces. On top of the basement is localised the piano nobile
Piano nobile
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...
. This was the most important and most impressive storey
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
of the building and was majorly used to receive guests. Notable to this draft are the four rank and round stairway towers that adjoins the building at each of the four angles of the building. These form four independent stairwells
Stairway
Stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...
and lead from the basement up to the piano nobile and the second floor.
School
Rijks-HBS
By the second half of the 19th century 28,000 people lived in Tilburg. The city was ready for a Rijks-HBSHogere burgerschool
The Hogere burgerschool or HBS was a secondary school type in the Netherlands, existing between 1863 and 1974. The school, with a five or sometimes six year program, was continued in 1968 as havo and vwo. The last hbs diplomas were given out in 1974.-External links:*...
, a new type of high school for secular
Secularity
Secularity is the state of being separate from religion.For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them...
education. This new type of school was aimed at young people from the bourgeoisie to prepare them for 'higher' positions in society, and was better adapted than the popular Latin school
Latin School
Latin School may refer to:* Latin schools of Medieval Europe* These schools in the United States:** Boston Latin School, Boston, MA** Brooklyn Latin School, New York, NY** Brother Joseph C. Fox Latin School, Long Island, NY...
to the economic demands of a constantly changing society. It was meant for that part of the middle class youth which didn't need a scientific education, but required a broad general knowledge to fulfil important positions in trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
and industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
.
Koning Willem II School
Although the city council wanted to provide this new type of education to the city's inhabitants, Tilburg was not to receive any financial support from the state for the construction of a new school building. The city couldn't afford a new building, so it was suggested that the palace of King William II be used for the new school. However, the palace was still in the possession of the Dutch royal family. On the 30th of November 1863, the city council sent a letter to the secretary of the royal family, begging for authorisation to use the palace as a school building. Authorisation came in 1864 and in 1865 alterations to the building began. On the 9th of April 1866 the palace was opened as a school named: Koning Willem II (King William II). One of its first students would also become the most famous of its alumni. The Dutch painterPainting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
, then 13 years old, attended classes in 1866 and left the school for unknown reasons in 1868. With an average rating of 7,36, Vincent was an average student.
Controversial beginning and the continual growth
The first 25 years of the school’s existence were tough. There was a huge turnover of staff and the number of students remained unchanged. The lack of religious education caused a lot of criticism from the roman caltholic clergy. Initially the school offered tuition to boys only, in 1894 the first girl was signed up, though. Maria Bes, the math teacher’s daughter, she passed the exams in 1899 and went to Delft to study engeneering; she became one of the first female engeneers in the Netherlands. In the 1920’s electric light and central heating was installed in the building and the fifty year old school desks were replaced. In 1934 the school moved, due to a lack of space, to a new location at the Ringbaan Oost in Tilburg.City hall
Alteration of 1934 - 1936
In 1934 the palace is 85 years old and about 70 years it functioned as a school. The building was totally decrepitted and had to get renovated and altered. In 1931 when the building was still used as a school the city council already spoke about the possibility to use the palace as the new city hall of the municipality. Oscar Leeuw an architect from Nijmegen got commissioned by the Tilburg city council to alter the decrepitted school into a representative Palace-Council House. Oscar Leeuw tried to recondition the original character of the building. He brought back the long lost merlonsMerlon
In architecture, a merlon forms the solid part of an embattled parapet, sometimes pierced by embrasures. The space between two merlons is usually called a crenel, although those later designed and used for cannons were called embrasures.-Etymology:...
and made the building more gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
than it has ever been by replacing the square windows with lancet windows
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
. The thin and slender towers near the entrace with the pinnacles
Pinnacle
A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire...
on them were replaced by a middle risalit
Risalit
A risalit, from the Italian risalto for "projection", is a German term which refers to a part of a building that juts out, usually over the full height of the building. In English the French term avant-corps is sometimes used. It is common in façades in the baroque period.A corner risalit is where...
with an entrance made in art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style. When the alteration was finished in 1936, the Palace-Council House was brought into use by mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Frans Vonk de Both on the 1st of August 1936.
Interior
Due to the alteration the Palace-Council House has been changed internally as well. The basement got an own entrance at the east side. The piano nobile was completely rearranged. In the nothern wing two wedding rooms were risen. In the southern wing the mayor’s room was located.At the east side, above the entrance to the basement a half circular balcuny was built. With a likewise half circular extension for a new and elegant stairwell which contains a broad marble spiral staircase which leads to the second floor. In the circular extension one can find stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
windows made by stained-glass artist Joep Nicolas. The scenes formed in the stained glass express the virtues of a number of the administrators through figures from the classical antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
.
On the second floor three halls were built. One big wedding room in the north wing and a big hall for the city council itself, complete with a press tribune, in the southern wing. A smaller room was specially for the alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
, which is between the wedding room and the hall for the city council. On the lintel beam
Lintel (architecture)
A lintel can be a load-bearing building component, a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. It is often found over portals, doors, and windows.-Structural uses:...
a fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
is made by Henri Sicking. It’s a symbolical representation of a prosperous future in an urban society of culture and economy. Expressed by a woman flanked by a man and a woman, while she writes on a banner which has been draped over a book support with the Latin words: 'CVLTVRA' and 'OECONOMIA' on it. The latter is derived from the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
οἰκονομία. Respectively these words mean: 'culture' and 'economy'.