The Martinikerk is the oldest church in the city of Groningen. It is named for Saint Martin of Tours, patron saint of the Bishopric of Utrecht, to which Groningen belonged. It began as a thirteenth-century cruciform church, was designated in 1225 and was extended in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It served briefly as a cathedral during the first bishopric of Groningen, from 1559 to 1594.
The brick Gothic church has a sandstone tower, built from 1469 to 1482, that rises 318 feet (97 meters). Locals call it d'Olle Grieze, the Old Grey One. Lightning destroyed both the original tower and its fifteenth-century replacement.
Inside are sixteenth-century tombs, surviving wall and roof paintings, and an organ whose stops date back to 1450, rebuilt and enlarged by Arp Schnitger among others. It is a Protestant church.
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