Menkemaborg

The Menkemaborg in Uithuizen is one of the few remaining Groningen borgs. The origins of the current borg lie at the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century. It is assumed that there was already a stone house on the same site. A plaque from 1614 reads: "Anno 1400 is Menckemahuis vernelt. Anno 1614 dorch Gods gnade reparert." Around the same time (1400), more baileys were destroyed, suggesting that this claim may be likely.

Nowadays the borg is a museum and gives a picture of the life of the Groningen junkers in the 17th and 18th centuries. The accompanying garden has been redesigned as an 18th-century Dutch garden. The garden is home to one of the few original mazes in the Netherlands.

The borg has two cabinet organs, both from the second half of the 18th century. The smallest is by the organ builder Hendrik Hess (1735-1794) from Gouda, the larger one was built in 1777 by Jan Jacob Vool and Hermanus Adolfus Groet in Amsterdam, with additions by Herman Eberhard Freytag from 1844. The latter, which was placed in the Menkemaborg by the Groninger Museum in 1935, is the largest surviving cabinet organ in the Netherlands. Both instruments were restored in the 21st century by Mense Ruiter and made playable.

A restaurant is located in the treasure house located on the borg grounds.

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