Tomorrow, the municipality of Gorinchem will unveil an archaeological find from around 1405 in the city centre. The find, a column of a pillar of the Court of Arkel, has been restored and will be placed as a monument behind a new department store.
Around 1405, the Hof van Arkel was the noble residence of the most famous of the Lords of Arkel: Jan van Arkel. The column was discovered in the summer of 2002 during archaeological excavations at the construction site of the new department store. Archaeologists came across foundations of seventeen by eight meters. They called the discovery 'one of the oldest remains of a noble residence'. The column base that was found is authentic and was built with fragments that were found during the excavations.
On the construction site, the archaeologists also found the presumed remains of the so-called City School, which must have been built around 1400. In 1435, an adjacent alley was known as the 'Scoelsteghe'. The excavators found dozens of writing pens, with which pupils could write in a soft layer of wax on a wax board, but they also found the remains of a toilet from 1400: a so-called beer pit.
December 10, 2003
Metro