File:Dordtse Gevels - Dordtse facades (49437689131).jpg

Dordrecht facade

Dordrecht façade with tripod

A Dordrecht facade is a Renaissance type of facade that was developed in the city of Dordrecht and can also be seen elsewhere.

A Dordrecht façade is a stepped gable that is furthermore characterized by arches above the windows, the niche of which is often decorated with a tripod or a so-called triplex arch. A number of cups have been added for decoration and the façade above the lower facade usually has two more floors.

The oldest facades are from 1550, and most were built between 1650 and 1795.

The Dordrecht façade was built as a master test for the masons guild of Dordrecht. It contained numerous elements in which all aspects of bricklayer art came to the fore. The design of the Dordrecht façade remained almost unchanged despite the arrival of new architectural styles. In 1725 the municipal authorities found that the façades of Dordrecht no longer fit into the main streets of the city and ordered that bricklayer tests could only be built in the back streets. As a result, these traditional facades can also be found in small streets and on the edges of the inner city. The construction of the original Dordrecht facades disappeared in 1795, when the guilds were abolished. Around 1900 the style briefly returned as a historicizing neo-style, in which a number of buildings were erected such as the Statenschool in Hofstraat.

Originally the Dordrecht facades were stepped gables. Most houses with a Dordrecht façade have only two windows on the first floor. In Dordrecht only one façade has remained with three windows (Kerkstraat - Grotekerksplein 5 at the back). Special Dordrecht façades with multiple windows on the floors can be found in Grave and Heusden. In later centuries, the facades were sometimes adapted to the new modes. The stair gables were capped and turned into a frame gable. The decorated masonry above the windows and the typing cups to close the arches betrayed the original Dordrecht façade.

Around 1900 Dordrecht still had 150 Dordrecht façades, but about 50 of them are left.

Because Dordrecht architects also worked in other cities, Dordrecht facades were also built there. Examples of Dordrecht facades can be found in Bergen op Zoom, Delft, Geertruidenberg, Gorinchem, Grave, Haarlem, Heusden, Leeuwarden, Oud-Beijerland, Schiedam and Woudrichem.

(In Dordrecht werden tijdens de ingrijpende sanering van de binnenstad in de jaren zestig vele achterstraten gesloopt. De fraaiste gevels uit deze straten, waaronder een aantal van het Dordtse type werden "gered", na een beschouwing van een gemeenteraad met een ander inzicht, en verplaatst naar de Hofstraat en de oostelijke wand van het Statenplein.)

Vertaald en geredigeerd uit Wikipedia