The Waag on the Nieuwmarkt, 1963, 1963

Netherlands

The Waag, a 15th-century building on Amsterdam's Nieuwmarkt square, is the city's oldest non-religious structure. Originally built in 1488 as the St. Anthony's Gate, it possibly dates back to 1425. When the city expanded beyond its walls, the gate became a weigh house in the 17th century, housing guilds of blacksmiths, painters, masons, and surgeons, including a surgical theatre famously depicted in Rembrandt's "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp." In the 19th century, it served as a lamp.. Read more » workshop, fire station, and city archives. Throughout the 20th century, it primarily functioned as a museum, housing the Amsterdam Museum and later the Jewish Historical Museum. Following restoration in the 1990s, it now houses cafes and restaurants on the lower floors and the Waag Society, a media technology organization, on the upper floors.