Cor Kraat New Delftse Poort (1995)

The old Delftsche Poort was designed in 1764 by the court architect of Stadtholder Willem IV, Pieter de Swart. He built this gate on the location where the Noorderpoort first stood since the Middle Ages, and later the Sint Jorispoort. The third structure, the Delftsche Poort, survived until 1939 and was the most famous structure in the city. To promote the flow of increased traffic, the municipality had decided to move the gate. Construction activities were in full swing when the city was hit by the bombing in 1940. The foundations of the new gate were also seriously damaged, so it was decided to remove the battered city gate. A great shame, thought artist Cor Kraat. He decided to recreate the gate in its entirety, but then open and spacious. By using modern steel profiles, but also by adding original artifacts and relics, which were still in storage since the bombing. On May 8, 1995, the New Delftse Poort unveiled at the Pompenburg by Prime Minister Wim Kok. That day marked the fiftieth anniversary of the reconstruction. The gate is a steel skeleton 18 meters wide, 13 meters deep and 18 meters high, painted in orange-red red red to which ornaments and relics from the old gate have been added. The open structure of the work makes the New Delftse Poort into a meeting place, a public space for reflection and imagination. The structure looks like a three-dimensional graphic drawing. The artwork appears to be under construction, symbolizing the fact that Rotterdam is still building. There were four personifications on the old gate: Trade and Traffic, the city maiden, the Maas and the Rotte. These figures return stylized on the modern gate. The New Delftse Poort shows the Rotterdam of the 18th century through the imagination of the old city gate.