Highlights in the city center.

Our tour starts on the roof of the freely accessible Forum. Forum Groningen opened its doors at the end of 2019. The striking, award-winning building with 17,000 m2 of floor space acts as Groningen's new living room. The Forum is home to the interactive Storyworld museum, five cinema screens, the public library and the Groningen Store tourist information centre (VVV). There are also three catering establishments and dozens of work and study spaces in the building. From the roof terrace, at a height of 45 metres, you have a wonderful view of Groningen's city centre. In clear weather, you can even see Schiermonnikoog.

Our route continues to the parking garage underneath the Forum. Here you will find the work of art Wervel (Vortex) by Nicky Assmann. Bright yellow, ocean blue and then fiery red: the intense colours of Wervel swish and swirl through the parking garage underneath Forum Groningen. They appear to splash off the twenty-metre-long LED sculpture. Wervel is a depiction of turbulence. The shape of the sculpture is inspired by a tornado and consists of a steel frame that incorporates over 1300 LED panels. (The parking garage can be reached between 9 am and 9 pm via the bicycle cellar / connecting door to the garage. Without a parking ticket, you can contact the control room via the button next to the door, which will then let you in. Or use the car entrance.)

We leave the Forum and walk from the Nieuwe Markt, via Naberstraat, to the Grote Markt.When we walk around the town hall to the back, we come to the Waagstraat complex. 

The designer of the Waagstraat complex, Adolfo Natalini, was inspired by the pre-war Grote Markt and gave the inner city a classical look with a town hall, shops, offices, terraces and the Waagplein square. On this square hangs the artwork Farsi laro/Making space by Janet Mullarney. The artist was inspired by the place where people pass by or stop to have a chat. The other statue in the square is called Appuntamento con la Musica and was created by Roberto Barni. When Barni created the statue, he thought of a man on his way to an appointment.

Cross the Waagplein and continue the route to the Vismarkt. Now walk to the other side of the square and turn left at Huis de Beurs. You have reached the Folkingestraat

In the past, the Folkingestraat was the centre of a lively Jewish culture. The synagogue, which dates from 1905, still bears witness to this. But the Second World War left a great void in Groningen's Jewish community. The art project Verbeeld Verleden (Depicted Past) highlights the street's past in a modest way. Five artists have integrated works of art into the street in an inexplicit way.

Joseph Semah created a lunar cycle in the the pavement: eleven bronze lunar shapes, from full moon to new moon. If all of the shapes were to be joined together, an eye would be created, with the full moon as the pupil. The lunar cycle is a metaphor for the lifecycle and the cycles that make up history and the future.

Peter de Kan's work often goes unnoticed. He had the word (Weggehaald) (Removed) milled out of the side wall of number 9. In this way, he wanted to emphasise the loss and emptiness in the Jewish and Groningen community after the Second World War. Placing the word between brackets and the inconspicuous place accentuates not being present just that little bit more.

In the porches of numbers 10, 20 en 33 hang enamelled works of art by Allie van Altena. Photographs from the early twentieth century show festive scenes with 'confetti' in the street. They take us back to what once was.

A Jewish horse butcher lived at number 23 before the Second World War. At regular intervals, the horses were brought in and driven into the passageway to the slaughterhouse. Artist Marijke Gémessy keeps the memory of this event alive with her ceramic relief.

In a blind wall on the corner of Folkingestraat and Gedempe Zuiderdiep, Gert Sennema placed a door with a hardstone pavement. This closed door, without a handle, conceals the history of Folkingestraat. A history that can no longer be retold because the people who once lived there were taken away during the Second World War.

Now cross the Gedempte Zuiderdiep

On the side wall in the Ubbo Emmiusstraat are sculptures by Willem Valk from 1930. The three facing bricks – the head of a policeman, handcuffs and a bunch of keys – refer to the police station that was established here together with the Department of Public Works.With the most recent extension to the rear of the government department/Ministry of Economic Affairs, architect Cees Nagelkerke opted to continue the old façade image of 1928.

Now walk straight on to the Groninger Museum

The Belgian artist Wim Delvoye made a tile tableau for the underside of this bridge. He was inspired by the Delft blue pottery. The eight tiles depict fictitious children's games, such as urinating in the direction of a wind machine, causing you to wet yourself and passing wind to set a little windmill in motion. Computer prints of the tile tableau have been made on sticker sheets, which have been stuck to the underside of the bridge. In summer, these can be seen regularly when the bridge opens to boat traffic.

From here, cross the Stationsweg to the Stadsbalkon. 

The Stadsbalkon (City Balcony) in front of Central Station was designed by architect Kees Christiaanse. The upper part of the balcony is a raised square where travellers and passers-by can rest or go for a stroll. The famous Groningen sculpture, Uncle Loeks’ Horse (Het Peerd van Ome Loeks) by Jan de Baat is also situated here. Since it was erected next to the main railway station in 1959, The Horse has become somewhat of a landmark for the city.

For the next work of art, go down one of the flights of stairs of the Stadsbalkon.

Underneath the Stadsbalkon, there is a large bicycle store for around 4500 bicycles. In the centre of this store hangs the work Second Thought by artist Giny Vos. Vos was captivated by the contrast and conflict that the Stadsbalkon and the main railway station seem to have with each other. With Second Thought, Vos reflects the station from top to bottom, as it were, and connects the two structures underground. Computer-controlled LED lighting creates a play of light and dark in the globe.

To reach the last stop on this route, it is necessary to go up again and walk into the old station hall.