Amsterdam’s ‘House of Weights’, known locally as De Waag, is a remarkable monument situated on the Nieuwmarkt.Originally one of Amsterdam’s three city gates when built in 1488, it was transformed into a weighing house when the city expanded in the 1600s and the name stuck. A number of guilds were based within the building and, perhaps most famously, it housed the Theatrum Anatomicum, in which the Surgeons’ Guild would perform their annual public dissection. Such a scene was captured in one of Rembrandt’s most renowned paintings: ‘The Anatomical Lessons of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp’.
Please login or register.