Two winged lions used to be seen on the distillery building of the old gas factory. Unlike the building itself, the statues have escaped demolition; they were on the CiBoGa site for a while, after which they ended up in the depot. The apartment complex De Ebbingehof has now been built on their original site and the lions are returned to their original location. We spoke to Arnold Heida of Steenhouwerij De Vries Buitenpost, who restored the sculptures.
How did you get involved in this craft?
“I started as a holiday worker when I was fifteen years old. First I sawed tiles to size and in the process the profession came to my attention and I developed a passion for it.”
And now you are the one who restores the monuments?
“I mainly deal with the monuments myself because I have the necessary expertise and also because it is my personal area of interest. Antiquity fascinates me: what kind of natural stone was used in the past and how exactly they did it. I also make ornaments and sculptures myself. I am currently working on Cooper's Mausoleum in Akkrum. One of the sculptures on the roof has been missing a part for a long time and for that a whole new sculpture has to be made, and I will make that.”
“At the new location, the lions have a roof over their heads again: this way they can face the future well protected” Arnold Heida
Have you also restored other statues or monuments in or around Groningen?
“Yes, we have restored the Swint monument on Linnaeusplein, for example. The plaque shows Johannes Swint, a communist man who was executed in the resistance. The portrait made of natural stone had previously been seen in other places in the city, including in a building, but now it is visible again in public space. At this location on Linnaeusplein, they have built a brick memorial wall to which the portrait is attached. We have restored the natural stone portrait, and above the portrait we have placed a granite cover plate to protect the image from the weather.
We have also restored the work of art Zand Erover in Thesinge. That is an image of a boy standing on the edge of a sandbox. In the sandbox itself are bronze objects that children can dig up while playing. That monument was damaged because a garbage truck had driven into it backwards. The bronze statue remained undamaged, but the edge of natural stone was dislocated and damaged. We have rectified this.”
Do you only restore monuments or do you also do other projects?
“What we do is very diverse. We are currently repairing, for example, the entire facade of the Academy Building of the University of Groningen. But we don't just do repair work, we also make stone applications for new construction: floors, counter tops, window sills, bathrooms and you name it.”
What exactly had to be done to the winged lions?
“The statues used to be in a place where they were reasonably protected against being flooded in from above. After the demolition of the distillery building, they stood for a while on the CiBoGa site, where water and frost had free rein. The statues are made of Belgian bluestone, which is a type of stone that consists of different layers. In technical terms, we call this the 'army'. It is a sediment rock that can be finished very nicely and in which you can also find many plant and animal remains. Normally you place the layers horizontally against the load, but the images are so large that that was not possible. Blocks of Belgian bluestone are only delivered in a certain size, so the statues had to be placed against the 'army'. As a result, all sediment layers ran vertically. The carbon layers that you have between the layers are washed away by the rain over time. The result of this is that water can get between the layers and in frost the image can crack or split. We have therefore preventively fixed the layers with stainless steel pins, so that all layers come together tightly again and together form a whole. Other areas of the statue were also eroded, such as the lions' eyelids. For this we have made new pieces and reattached them, so that they are completely whole again. At the new location, the lions have a roof over their heads again: this way they can face the future well protected.”
Note: This article has been translated using Google Translate