At work - City

The city of Groningen was strategically located in the Middle Ages: on the one hand, high enough on the northernmost point of the Hondsrug, so that the water could not reach it during storm surges, on the other hand, easily accessible from the water via the Reitdiep, among other things, and on land via the same Hondsrug, which led travellers high and dry along marshes and peat areas. It is therefore logical that Groningen developed into a prosperous trading centre in the Middle Ages. By means of treaties and regulations, the city attracted trade and power: the staple right did not allow goods produced in the Ommelanden to be offered and traded anywhere other than in Groningen. Warehouses such as those that can still be seen on the Hoge der A were full of grain, wool and hides that were traded in England, but also in Germany, Denmark and the Baltic region.
Groningen, often affectionately called City, is still the city of the North. The city where people work and study hard.
This cycle route takes you along places in the city where people from Groningen were at work. In beer breweries, grain warehouses and in the corn exchange. On the assembly line in factories for tobacco, horseshoes and pudding. At the cutting tables with men's ready-to-wear or on the quays and in the warehouses on the Hoge and Lage der A, when preparing the construction of a villa park or the new railway line Meppel - Groningen. The doctors and nurses in the hospital and of course not to forget all the professors, lecturers, researchers, curators, messengers, cleaners and secretaries in the more than 400 year old university.