UG buildings: the House with the 13 Temples

The University as we know it now is more than the Academy Building alone. In this series, based on the podwalk and the Dutch booklet In the footsteps of the Academy , we will put the spotlight on various buildings—and a work of art—of the UG and their history. In this episode: the House with the 13 Temples.

The House with the 13 Temples is located at Oude Boteringestraat 23. In the fifteenth century, the property was originally designed to be a double building. Both houses were built by commission of Johan Wicheringe, provost of Humsterland, alongside a then important trading route headed north. The building was decorated with a façade that was adorned with 13 pediments, or timpanen in Dutch—cavities between the lintel and the arch above it. The word timpanen was probably corrupted into ‘temples’.

The house has been renovated several times and the ‘temples’ disappeared, but the name stuck. On the 1711 painting Chronos by Groningen painter Herman Collenius, you can clearly see what the building looked like at the time. The painting can now be seen at the Groninger Museum. The building is now used by the Department of Arts, Culture and Media of the Faculty of Arts.

Want to find out more?

Check out the previous edition on

• The Academy Building

• The Ubbo Emmius monument

• The University Library
• The Röling Building
• The former Laboratory for Hygiene

• The former Astronomy Laboratory
• The Institute of Archaeology

Are you interested in the buildings and history of the UG? You can download the podwalk ‘In the footsteps of the Academy’ for free. Go to the App Store (Apple) or Google Play (Android) and search for ‘Op stap met Aletta’. The walking route is also available as a book from the I-Shop (University shop).