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Huis aan de Drie Grachten

1610 establishments in the Dutch RepublicHouses completed in 1610Houses in the NetherlandsRijksmonuments in Amsterdam
Huis aan de drie grachten
Huis aan de drie grachten

The Huis aan de Drie Grachten or Huis op de Drie Grachten ("House on Three Canals") is a 17th-century canal house in Amsterdam, at the southeastern end of the Wallen district. The name is a reference to the fact that the building faces three different Amsterdam canals. The south facade faces Grimburgwal, the west facade faces Oudezijds Voorburgwal and the east facade faces Oudezijds Achterburgwal. The address is Oudezijds Voorburgwal 249. The Huis aan de Drie Grachten is a double house in Dutch Renaissance style. A stepped gable crowns each of the three facades. The current structure dates to around 1610, although archeological study has shown that the oldest elements of the house date to the second quartile of the 16th century. The building has rijksmonument (national monument) status. In 1909, the building underwent large-scale renovations under the supervision of the architect Jan de Meijer. He aimed to restore the building to its original 17th-century state, basing himself on a contemporary painting of the house by Gerrit Berckheyde which is now in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum. During the renovations, the building was given new stepped gables, kruiskozijnen (windows that are divided into four smaller windows by crossbeams), and a sandstone entrance gate. These replaced the original elements which had been demolished in the 18th century. The renovation also stripped the interior of the house of elements which had been added over the centuries. In 2005, the building underwent a second renovation. There are two large 17th-century mantelplaces within the house. However, it is not known whether these were added during the 1909 renovations, or whether these are original elements of the house. August Aimé Balkema opened a bookstore in the building in 1936. During the Second World War, the bookstore was used to clandestinely print and publish works of poetry and other literature. A hidden compartment over one of the mantelpieces was uncovered during the renovations in 2005. This compartment was found to contain an archive of wartime documents, including manuscripts and correspondence. The compartment may also have served as a hiding place for (Jewish) onderduikers (people hiding from the Germans). The building remained in use as a bookstore until 2002. The publishing house Uitgeverij Huis aan de Drie Grachten held office in the building for decades. The publisher focused mainly on literary and linguistic studies. Over Multatuli, a journal dedicated to the Dutch writer Multatuli, was also published here from 1978.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Huis aan de Drie Grachten (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Huis aan de Drie Grachten
Vendelstraat, Amsterdam Centrum

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Latitude Longitude
N 52.369166666667 ° E 4.8947222222222 °
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UvA Binnengasthuisterrein

Vendelstraat
1012 XX Amsterdam, Centrum
North Holland, Netherlands
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Huis aan de drie grachten
Huis aan de drie grachten
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Nes (Amsterdam)
Nes (Amsterdam)

Nes ([ˈnɛs]; sometimes called de Nes, "the Nes") is a narrow, old, street in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. It runs parallel to and to the east of Rokin, between Dam Square to the north and Grimburgwal to the south. The Dutch word nes means headland or spit (compare the English word "ness", often found as a suffix in placenames). Until the seventeenth century, the northern part of Nes (roughly near where Dam Square now is) was called Gansoord ("Goose-oord"). (An oord (nl) is a piece of land between where two rivers meet.) The name most likely described the nature of the street's original situation among the waterways of Amsterdam. In the year 1500, there were around 20 monasteries in Amsterdam; of which five were in Nes. The street was nicknamed Gebed zonder End ("Prayer without end"). A side alley bears that name to this day (nl). Open practice of Catholicism was banned after the Alteratie of 1578, and the monasteries were given over to other uses. For example, the Binnengasthuis was founded as a hospital on the sites of the Old and New Nunneries. From early in the nineteenth century, Nes became a centre for entertainment. Its attractions included brothels, café-chantants, the Salon des Variétés, the Theatre Tivoli, and artists' cafés. Later, it became important in the tobacco trade. From 1911 (or earlier) until the mid 1930s, No. 17 was home to one of the earliest gay bars: The Empire. Since the 1960s, Nes has become known as a theatrical quarter; with sites including Frascati, Engelenbak, De Brakke Grond (a Flemish cultural centre), TOBACCO Theater (a rijksmonument), and the Comedy Theatre in de Nes.