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Waag Review

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Waag

Address: Bounded by Kloveniersburgwal, Geldersekade, and Zeedijk, Centrum, Amsterdam

Weigh House

Category: Museums/Galleries
Location: Old City Center

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Fodor's Review:

Built in the center of the square in 1488, the Waag functioned as a city gate, Sint Antoniespoort, until the early 17th century. During those centuries, the gate would be closed at exactly 9:30 PM to keep out not only the bandits but also the poor and the diseased who built shantytowns outside the wall. When the city expanded, it began a second life as a weighing house for incoming products. The top floor of the building came to accommodate the municipal militia and several guilds, including the masons who did the evocative decorations that grace each of the towers' entrances. One of its towers housed a teaching hospital for the academy of surgeons of the Surgeons' Guild. The Theatrum Anatomicum (Anatomy Theater), with its cupola tower covered in painted coats of arms, was the first place in the Netherlands to host public autopsies. For obvious reasons, these took place only in the winter. Now the building is occupied by a café-restaurant with free Internet service and the Society for Old and New Media (www.waag.org).

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