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Nominally a fiefdom of the Bishops of Utrecht from 1040 until 1536, the northern city of
GRONINGEN
was once an important centre of trade. Heavily bombed in World War II, it is an architectural jumble with few notable sights, but its large, prestigious university gives it a cosmopolitan feel quite unexpected in this rustic part of the country. The centre of town is
Grote Markt
, a large open space that was badly damaged by wartime bombing and has been reconstructed with little imagination. At one corner is the
Martinikerk
(Easter-Nov Tues-Sat noon-5pm; eŽ1.10), a beacon of architectural sanity in the surrounding shambles. Though the oldest parts of the church go back to 1180, most of it is mid-fifteenth-century Gothic. The vault paintings in the nave are beautifully restored, and the lofty choir holds two series of frescoes on the walled-up niches of the clerestory. Adjoining the church is the seventeenth-century tower
Martinitoren
(April-Sept daily 11am/noon-4.30pm; Oct-March Sat & Sun noon-4.30pm; eŽ1.40). West along A-Kerkhof NZ from Grote Markt, the comprehensive
Noordelijk Scheepvaart Museum
, Brugstraat 24 (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; eŽ3.60), has displays on maritime trade with the Indies, the development of peat canals and a series of reconstructed nautical workshops. In the same building, the smaller
Niemeyer Tabaksmuseum
is devoted to tobacco smoking from 1600 to the present day. The city's biggest and best museum, the
Groninger Museum
(Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; eŽ6.10;
www.groninger-museum.nl
) is housed in spectacular pavilions across from the train station. The west pavilion is given over to travelling exhibitions but also houses the permanent art collection, including Rubens' energetic
Adoration of the Magi
among a small selection of seventeenth-century works, Hague school paintings, and a number of late works by the Expressionists of the Groningen De Ploeg group. Besides this, diaphanous drapes guide you through vitrines of Far Eastern ceramics and ivory.
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