Card 9
Klik hier voor het antwoord Martinitoren
Extra assignment
Do you also recognize that due to all the hustle and bustle, meeting up sometimes gets lost or happens less often than you would like? Because we are almost at the end of the walk, we want to prevent the next appointment or date between you and your walking partner postponed too long!
That's why we challenge you to immediately plan a new date and do something that both of you have never done before! Good luck ;)
When you are in the middle of the square, you will see The Market Hotel on the right sight next to the Martinitoren. This fantastic and eye-catching hotel opened its doors in 2021. On the ground floor of this hotel you find Café Willem Albert (QR). This café owes its name to the Groninger Willem Albert Scholten (1819 – 1892).
The Market Hotel (Cafe Willem Albert):
Willem Albert Scholten, a citizen of Groningen who lived from 1819 to 1892, is regarded as the world's first agricultural industrialist. He eventually had 24 factories built in the fields of potato starch, potato malt wine, straw board, sugar and peat litter. He had his factories built both in the Netherlands and abroad, making him the first industrial multinational in the Netherlands and he made huge fortune. Willem Albert Scholten had set his sights on having his own palace built in the heart of Groningen. He bought three properties at the Grote Market. He had them demolished and had his own enormous house built here in an eclectic style. In 1881 he and his family moved into the building he had built. However, the building also has a loaded and sad history. During the Second World War, the house was confiscated by the Germans and used as the headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst and the Sicherheitspolizei. During the same war, many resistance fighters were imprisoned, interrogated and tortured here. At the time of the liberation of Groningen, the building was heavily shelled, set on fire and eventually destroyed. Now, many years later, the Market Hotel was built on exactly this spot.