Cathedral of Mercury's Wheel. Railway Station, Groningen, The Netherlands
In the low but bright Winter's sunlight this morning, we walked up the stately Oude Boteringestraat in the very heart of Academia, across the Vismarkt (=Fish Market) with the glittering Aa-Kerk (St Nicholas and Our Lady) at its west end, down the Folkingestraat past the imposing Synagogue in Moorish Style, over the bridge 'through' the various buildings of the postmodern museum... and there it was: the Cathedral of Mercury's Wheel. Or rather, the main building of the railway station.
From the Philip Starck-Alessandro Mendini-Coop Himmelb(l)au Bridge of the museum the view is striking. The enormous red-brick 'cathedral' in gothic and renaissance style stretches 120 metres. Its central hall is topped by a pinnacle adorned with a Winged Locomotive Wheel, gleaming in the sunlight this morning. In the nineteenth century such winged wheels were closely associated with railways. The wings of those engine wheels allude to Hermes or Mercury, Greek and Roman gods of travel. Those gods are often shown with winged shoes or sandals, of course (as for example in the logos of many postal systems).
This building - constructed between 1893 and 1896 - was designed by the Dutch architect Isaac Gosschalk (1838-1907) of Amsterdam, where he was also an alderman. He'd studied in Zürich, Switzerland, and was much influenced by then highly fashionable throwbacks to Moorish, Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles.
This photo is of the southern stained glass window high up in the main hall of the station. It's a window fitting for this Cathedral devoted to Modern Railway Transportation and to the gods of Travel. These gods were in a good mood today, for the Pharmacist whom I'd dropped off at the Blue and Yellow Train arrived safely at V. about four hours later but quite on time...
Cathedral of Mercury's Wheel. Railway Station, Groningen, The Netherlands
In the low but bright Winter's sunlight this morning, we walked up the stately Oude Boteringestraat in the very heart of Academia, across the Vismarkt (=Fish Market) with the glittering Aa-Kerk (St Nicholas and Our Lady) at its west end, down the Folkingestraat past the imposing Synagogue in Moorish Style, over the bridge 'through' the various buildings of the postmodern museum... and there it was: the Cathedral of Mercury's Wheel. Or rather, the main building of the railway station.
From the Philip Starck-Alessandro Mendini-Coop Himmelb(l)au Bridge of the museum the view is striking. The enormous red-brick 'cathedral' in gothic and renaissance style stretches 120 metres. Its central hall is topped by a pinnacle adorned with a Winged Locomotive Wheel, gleaming in the sunlight this morning. In the nineteenth century such winged wheels were closely associated with railways. The wings of those engine wheels allude to Hermes or Mercury, Greek and Roman gods of travel. Those gods are often shown with winged shoes or sandals, of course (as for example in the logos of many postal systems).
This building - constructed between 1893 and 1896 - was designed by the Dutch architect Isaac Gosschalk (1838-1907) of Amsterdam, where he was also an alderman. He'd studied in Zürich, Switzerland, and was much influenced by then highly fashionable throwbacks to Moorish, Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles.
This photo is of the southern stained glass window high up in the main hall of the station. It's a window fitting for this Cathedral devoted to Modern Railway Transportation and to the gods of Travel. These gods were in a good mood today, for the Pharmacist whom I'd dropped off at the Blue and Yellow Train arrived safely at V. about four hours later but quite on time...