City Hall of Tilburg
The City Hall of Tilburg or Palace-Council House (
The palace was built by contractor and carpenter Adriaan Goijaerts from Tilburg. On 7 July 1847 Goijaerts accepted the commission from William II of the Netherlands for the sum of ƒ 57,000. Goijaerts completed the palace on 7 April 1849.
The palace has been rebuilt thoroughly twice, in 1865 and from 1934 to 1936, to give the palace a different purpose. The palace has been used as a school and as city hall of the municipality Tilburg. The school offered
In 1931 the palace was donated to Tilburg municipality by the
Construction
Location
The new royal palace was built in the backyard of a former royal residence. This former residence was actually a connected row of houses. In 1835 The Prince of Orange bought these houses behind the church of Saint Denis from a family called Frankenhoff and had them rebuilt into a sober palace. When William succeeded his father as king of the Netherlands in 1840 the palace didn’t have the royal quality befitting his new status. A new palace had to be constructed. The former palace was demolished in 1847.
Design
According to legend king William II made the first sketches for the palace himself, following the neo-gothic building style he knew from his childhood in England. It’s very likely that drawing teacher Frederik Lodewijk Huijgens of the royal military academy in Breda and royal master builder Jan C. Boon were involved into the design.
The building's basement is about 60% subterranean and 40% above ground. This was common among houses, castles and palaces at the time. On top of the basement sits the
School
Rijks-HBS
By the second half of the 19th century 28,000 people lived in Tilburg. A need was felt for a
Koning Willem II School
Although the city council wanted to provide this new type of education to the city's inhabitants, Tilburg did not receive state financial support for a school building. As the city couldn't afford a new building, it was suggested that King William II's palace be used for the new school. The palace was still owned by the Dutch royal family. On 30 November 1863 the city council sent a letter to the secretary of the royal family, requesting the palace's use as a school building. Authorisation came in 1864 and in 1865 alterations to the building began. On 9 April 1866 the palace was opened as a school, named: Koning Willem II (King William II). One of its first students would also become its most famous alumni: Dutch painter 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 (on a scale from 1 to 10) young Vincent was a mediocre student. His art teacher was the painter Constant Cornelis Huijsmans.
Controversial beginning and the continual growth
The first 25 years of the school’s existence were tough. There was a large turnover of staff and the number of students remained small. The lack of religious education caused a lot of criticism from the Roman Catholic clergy. Initially the school offered tuition to boys only; in 1894 the first girl was signed up – Maria Bes, daughter of the mathematics teacher. She passed her exams in 1899 and went to Delft to study engineering. She became one of the first female engineers in the Netherlands. In the 1920s electric light and central heating were installed in the building and the 50-year-old desks were replaced. In 1934 the school moved, for lack of space, to a new location at the Ringbaan Oost in Tilburg.
City hall
Alteration of 1934–1936
In 1934 the palace was 85 years old and for about 70 years it had functioned as a school. The building was totally decrepit and had to get renovated and altered. In 1931, when the building was still used as a school, the city council already considered using the palace as the new city hall.
Interior
The alteration of the Palace-City Hall also changed its interior. The basement got a separate entrance at the east side. The piano nobile was completely rearranged. In the northern wing two wedding rooms were built. In the southern wing the mayor’s office was constructed.
At the east side, above the entrance to the basement, a half circular balcony was built. With a similar half circular extension, a new and elegant stairwell was made, which contains a broad marble spiral staircase. The circular extension have stained glass windows made by stained-glass artist Joep Nicolas. The scenes in the stained glass express the virtues of a number of administrators and figures from 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 gallery in the southern wing. A smaller room between the wedding room and the council chambers was made for the
See also
References
- ISBN 90-900372-5-X
External links
Media related to Paleis-Raadhuis Tilburg at Wikimedia Commons