The City Gorcum

You will even find some of Gorcum’s history in our hotel. A significant portion of the hotel is built on the ruins of the “Blauwe Toren” which can be seen on the lowest floor. The Blauwe Toren is a defensive fortress with the air of a castle, built on the orders of Karel de Stoute. Strategically situated on the southwest side of the city, overlooking the Merwede from Werkendam to Loevestein makes it impossible to miss the strategic value of this location.

On the other side of the hotel you can see the city wall across the Duveltjesgracht. Fortunately the city wall survived the municipal renovation projects of the 1970s and 1980s completely intact. Today the city wall still completely encloses Gorcum and has one of the original city gates, the Dalempoort. Going through the Dalempoort and walking to the Merwede you get a perfect image of the construction of Gorcum in and on the swamp area formed by the Merwede. It seems that swamp area is the reason for the presence of beavers; pay close attention to the chewed up vegetation that you can see in many places along the eastern city gate, around Nonnenveld.

My enthusiasm tempts me to give a rather chaotic explanation of your walk across and along the city wall. Let me start by explaining that you can, of course, follow the city wall in two directions. Leaving the hotel, you can turn left, to the east, with the wall on your left, follow this to the first entrance, after about 75 metres, by Restaurant Merwezicht. After the entrance, keep to the right, cross over the Linge through the lock doors, still keeping to the right, onto the wall, arriving at the eastern part of the city wall. Simply follow the wall and you will complete a circle of about 3.5 kilometres.

Of course, you can walk the wall in the opposite direction; leave the hotel, turn left and go directly left, to the top. Once on top, you are on the city wall which you can follow to the west (keep to the left). Once again: just keep following the wall and you will end up at your departure point. You can find more info here.