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The Amsterdam canals are applauded. Yet, The Hague also has its canals: the Buitenom, the Prinsessegracht and the Dunne Bierkade for instance. Since 2004, a canal boat has been sailing through The Hague's city waters. One of the bridges it travels under is the Herengracht Bridge. On the railing of this bridge is the statue that Joop van Lunteren made in 1932 to commemorate the creation of The Hague's first defensive structure: the Singelgracht.
This canal was dug between 1612 and 1619 by order of Prince Maurice, stadholder of Holland and Zeeland. The Hague had no city walls and, despite the Twelve Year Truce (1609-1621), the war with Spain posed a threat. Maurice decided that a defensive ditch should be dug around his home town of The Hague to make it less vulnerable.
1613 - By citizens' deed on Maurice's advice, deez cingel arises - 1619', is the motto written in the border below the somewhat stylised figures. The relief shows prominent people with papers in their hands and typical 17th-century lace collars. Maurice - recognisable by the sash - is talking to the leaders of the work. Van Lunteren has depicted the workers simply dressed, one holding a pickaxe and others holding a shovel. A soldier and his horse are also depicted.
Van Lunteren belongs to the generation of artists who, in the first decades of the 20th century, daringly developed Dutch architectural sculpture. This form of sculpture was strongly intertwined with architecture, but the sculptors fought for independence for their work. Van Lunteren, for instance, continued the form of the bridge pillar in the natural stone Maurits relief. But this pillar is much larger than the other three bridge pillars. Architect and sculptor clearly took each other's design into account.