On our last day in Utrecht we were able to visit the Pandhof, or cloister gardens of the Dom (cathedral, dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours). We were lucky as fellow Urban Sketchers @kittyvdheuvel and @imonkie had only been able to see the gardens from the Dom cafe the day before.

A panoramic view of the gardens.

Built in the 1400’s as a cloister connecting the cathedral and chapter house, the Pandhof was only used by the church for about 100 years before local residents took it over. The garden became part of Utrecht University in 1636 and gets closed for university functions every so often.

The beautiful stone arches of the cloister.

I loved that each archway had a different design at the top and every gargoyle was an individual.

Some of the gargoyles in the cloister.

I sketched the central archway in the photo above, which also features a sculpture of the death of Saint Martin, left side of the page. I was sitting inside the cloister as heavy rain was falling. It gave me the idea to paint the right hand side view, which is of the archway I was sitting behind from the inside. I added the flowers for the garden, which was initially created in 1962 and then redesigned and replanted in 1975.

Archway with the death of Saint Martin, left side; view from inside the cloister, right side.