Noorderplantsoen is an urban public

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

in the city of

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

in the Netherlands, situated slightly north of the city center. Its name is Dutch for ''northern public garden''.

History

In 1874 the ''Vestingswet'' was passed. This law allowed cities to expand outside of the

city walls A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

and fortifications. Since the fortifications were no longer in use, they were transformed into a public park. The earth ramparts were incorporated in the park architecture and the moats were turned into ponds. The architecture is of an English garden style, characterized by meandering paths and serpentine ponds, inspired by wild nature. The shape of the park still reflects the former purpose of the area: the long but narrow park curves around the old city. The park includes an

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

bandstand and a small restaurant. Until the mid-90s the Noorderplantsoen was split up by a busy road, but a referendum in 1994 decided - with a narrow majority - to close this road for motorized traffic.

Events

Every year a number of events take place in the Noorderplantsoen, of which the

Noorderzon The Noorderzon Festival is an annual festival in the Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community ...

Theater Festival is well known. This cultural event takes place at the end of August and is visited by over 125,000 visitors. Many theater,

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

and music groups from The Netherlands and abroad perform during this 11-day festival. Another well-known event in the Noorderplantsoen is the ''plantsoenloop''. This run through the park is held annually in October or early November and attracts about 500 runners. In 2007 the 50th edition of the ''plantsoenloop'' took place.

External links

Noorderplantsoen.nl
Parks in Groningen (province) Urban public parks Groningen (city) {{coord, 53, 13, 25, N, 6, 33, 20, E, type:landmark_region:NL, display=title