Catharinastraat

After several guided tours through my own city I realised I don't know anything about the history of Breda. Weekly trips to the library and a lot of reading about Breda followed. To help visualizing were everything I am reading about took place I have started memorizing the names of all the streets in the city center. This might become a project :)

This is one of the many pretty streets in the city center, de Catharinastraat. On the left is the entrance to 'het Begijnhof', located on Catharinastraat #23 (a 'rijksmonument') and one of my favorite places in Breda. On the right the entrance to the Willem Merkxtuin, a lovely quiet place in the middle of the city center.

In the 60's a number of the lovely old buildings in this street were planned to be demolished to make room for a wider street so the city center would be easier to reach by car. I'm glad this never happened, but around the same time the old harbour was closed and changed into one of the ugliest underground parking spaces imaginable. Stupidest thing ever to happen in Breda, lucky a few years ago the harbour was reopened.

Also, this happened! my 15 minutes of fame :)