Its centuries-old, partly-walled garden dates back to the Renaissance, to 1626 to be precise. You can relax in the rose garden, take a look at the herb garden, just linger in the shadow of the trees, or take a nap on one of the wooden benches.

If you look around further, you can find two small hedgerows shaped as the letters W and A, which are the first letters of the Christian names of the Groningen stadholder Willem Frederik and his wife Albertine Agnes. The garden belongs to a house called the Prinsenhof.

During the French occupation the building was used as a military hospital and the French built an extra wall to prevent people from throwing bottles of booze over the wall into the garden. A small piece of this blue wall can still be seen.

Another nice feature is the Zonnewijzerpoort, a very large sundial above the stone porch entrance, which was beautifully restored about 50 years ago. According to some, it’s the most impressive and elegant sundial in the Netherlands.

The Latin inscription advises us to be wise with our time – because the past is gone and the future is unclear, be wise and don’t waste the time you have now. Funnily enough, that is exactly what this garden invites you to do. Well, not really wasting your time of course, just chilling out a little.