Photos

The Waag (weighing-house) at the Nieuwmarkt is the most important building from the middle ages owned by the city of Amsterdam still existing today. Originally it was a entrance gate to the city, the Sint Antoniespoort (poort = gate), and was part of the city wall along what nowadays called Singel, the Kloveniersburgwal and the Geldersekade. The Sint Antoniesgate was built in 1488.

The city wall was built during 1481-1494 and concisted of towers for defence and gates to nter the city connected by a city wall. The walls were built of bricks except for the foundation. Today hardly anything can be found of these constructions except for the Schreierstower (a defence tower), the Sint Antoniesgate (seen in this photo) and part of the Reguliersgate (het lower part of the Munttower).

When the city of Amsterdam got bigger at the end of the 16th century the gate lost its function as a city gate. In the beginning of the 17th century a new market square (Nieuwmarkt) was constructed near the gate. In 1617/18 it was reconstructed to be a weighinghouse. At the higher floors several guilds had their offices, each with its own entrance. In 1690/91 the Waag was reconstructed to the building it is today.

During time the Waag has been used by the fire department and as a museum (Amsterdam Historical Museum and the Jewish Historical Museum). From 1994 the Waag was completely renovated after it had been standing empty for several years. Today is used as a cafe-restaurant at the ground level and by a Society for Old and New Media at the top floors.

Source: http://www.bma.amsterdam.nl/adam/nl/groot/waag.html, translated from Dutch