Nieuwmarkt - Waag, Amsterdam

Built in 1488, the gatehouse was part of the original city walls. Later it became a weighing house and nowadays a restaurant. For me, the gatehouse was always as pleasant sight to see because it meant that I had safely exited the Red Light district.

The weigh house was originally built in 1488 as one of Amsterdam’s city gates, St Anthony’s Port (a part of the city’s fortifications) and was one of Amsterdam’s three main gates.
Since 1617 is the gate used as a public weigh house. The upper floors were used by city’s militia and other rooms were assigned to various guilds (each guild had its own entrance).
After the guilds moved early 19th century various tenants used the building. After a restoration Restaurant-Café In de Waag eventually opened its doors here in 1996.
Open daily.

On Sunday morning around 11 am we found this little rastro (flea market). I really liked it I got a collectable item of KLM' numbered houses (they are 90 of them each one has filled with genebre drink) the vendor was such a nice person. My friend got from him a lots of porcelen and glass antiques, he gave us very good discount. I also got antique old Amsterdam postcards here.
On Sundays, an antiques market goes on from 9 to 5 (May-Sept.).

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The "New Market" square is of course a market area. But there are several cafes around the square and lots of people sitting on the cafes people-watching. The De Waag which is the prominent structure on the square used to be a gate of the medieval city walls - now it's an office for the Waag Society (waag means weighing scale?).

I passed by an organic food market also...what's organic food by the way?

In the heart of Amsterdam lies a remnant of the former city walls known as the "Amsterdam Waag". The walls were constructed here between 1481 and 1494. The Waag was constructed in 1488 and originally housed one of the city gates known as the "Sint Anthoniespoort". The lower part of another gate also exists here called the Regulierspoort ("Munttoren") and a defense tower known as the Schreierstoren. As the city wall disappeared, the New Market (Nieuwmarkt) began and the building housed the weighing scales. It became the predominant weigh house in Amsterdam. Weigh houses are buildings where scales are set up to weigh goods and levy taxes on goods transported through the area. From 1550-1690 those accused of witchcraft were sometimes brought here to be subjected to a "witch test" where if the person was found to be lighter than a set weight, s/he was deemed guilty. During the Spanish Inquisition, public executions took place here and to the left of this building you can find an inclined alleyway called the "Bloedstraat" (Blood street) where the blood from executions drained down. "Waag" means "scale" and his how the place got its name. In the late 16th century, as the city expanded, the wall was torn down and the gate lost its function. The defensive canal and palissade was turned into the market square, raising the ground, and filling in the canal. The upper floors housed four guilds - the smiths, the painters, the masons, and the surgeons. Each had its own entrance tower. This is the famous spot where in 1632 Rembrandt van Rijn was commissioned to paint the surgeons at work which is how the Anatomical Lesson of Dr. Tulp made his name. They added a theatrum anatomicum in 1691 so that paying members of the public could witness human dissections. the guilds were dissolved in 1795 leading to many different uses of the building, including a fire brigade and two museums before being taken over by a foundation in 1990. This foundation originally planned to partly destroy the building and build an addition designed by Philippe Starck but because the foundation went bankrupt they were unable to accomplish this feat. The local neighbourhood, historians, and the Amsterdam city council worked to restore it keeping its medieval background. In 1996 the Waag Society became the principal tenant. The Waag Society is the ICT research foundation that is working in the social and cultural domain of Amsterdam, and is a responsible group, according to locals, for its part in shutting down the Red Light district and cafes. The building also houses a very expensive cafe/restaurant on the ground floor that most locals recommend to avoid.

the waag is amsterdam's oldest gate house. built in 1488 it has served many purposes over the years. in 1617 it was used as a public weighhouse, (waaggeboune). in 1619 the guild of surgeons had their anatomy theatre here. since nieuwmarkt square was the site of public executions there was an ample supply of cadavers to dissect. these dissections were the inspiration for rembrandt's "the anatomy lesson of dr. tulup", and "the anatomy lesson of dr. jan deijman". today the waag is a restaurant.

This building is the most interesting structure of Nieuwmarkt, a somewhat gritty square at the northeastern part of the old city.

The building dates to the XV century when it was one of the city's fortified gates. Then it was used as a weighing house, then it was abandoned, and now hosts a cafe.

The square itself used to be the market of the adjacent Jewish quarter, but this ended tragically with the events of WW II.

If for nothing else I would visit the Neuwe Market just for this beautiful building, Der Waag (or Weighing House). This was originally part of the city walls, called St. Anthony's Gate, but was later used for a weighing house and also a guild house.