Vlooienburg or Vloonburg was a filled-in island in the Amstel river on the site of the Stopera in Amsterdam. In the seventeenth century, a lively migrant neighborhood emerged here with timber traders, Jewish merchants from the Mediterrean, kosher shopkeepers, and craftsmen, etc. The island formed the core area of Amsterdam's Jewish Quarter until the destruction in the twentieth century. [1]
Not much is known about the early history of Vlooienburg. The first sale of a house in the area dates back to June 1603. This means that the issuance of empty lots must have taken place in Winter 1602. In a short time, four blocks of houses with a total of two hundred residential buildings arose here. [3] In 1605 timber traders arrived. [4] The name Vlooienburg first appeared in 1609. The Brownists settled there as well. For the Jewish population the change came in 1614 through a diktat from the States of Holland. [5] The library Ets Haim was founded in 1616. From 1618 onwards, three small synagogues and schools were established in private houses, and after a merger, the Talmud Torah at Houtgracht served until 1675. [6]
Judah Leon Templo lived on Vlooienburg, Menasseh Ben Israel, Baruch Spinoza and family lived at Houtgracht opposite the island. [7] [8] Rembrandt settled for a while in a former sugar refinery but moved in 1639 to Jodenbreestraat. [9] After a year of plague Daniel Stalpaert became the architect of orphanage along the waterfront; the timber traders disappeared. After the first wave of Sephardim immigration, many Ashkenazi from Central and Eastern Europe settled there.
For many years it was the location of a covered ballgame or tennis court, and a fish-market at the waterfront. Around 1840 Coster Diamonds was established on the island. In 1874 and 1882, the Houtgracht and Leprozengracht were filled in, meaning that Vlooienburg was no longer an island. The Waterlooplein was designed in the resulting space. The Blauwbrug dates from 1884.
After the Shoah, there was hardly anyone left to return to the homes. Vlooienburg and the adjacent islands of Uilenburg and Rapenburg are synonymous with poor houses, large families, poor hygiene and dilapidation. The badly dilapidated houses of Vlooienburg were demolished and nothing remained of the Jewish quarter. In 1982, construction of the Stopera began, the combined city hall and Opera building that stood on the site of the demolished blocks and was finished in 1986. [10]
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Waterlooplein is a square in the centre of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The square near the Amstel river is named after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Prominent buildings on the square are the Stopera city hall and opera building and the Mozes en Aäronkerk church.
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The Jodenbuurt is a neighbourhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands. For centuries before World War II, it was the center of the Dutch Jews of Amsterdam — hence, its name. It is best known as the birthplace of Baruch Spinoza, the home of Rembrandt, and the Jewish ghetto of Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Lastage is a neighborhood in the Centrum borough of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is located between the Geldersekade and Oudeschans canals, just east of old medieval city. Today, the neighbourhood is also known as Nieuwmarktbuurt due to the fact that the Nieuwmarkt is comprised in the area; it is protected as a heritage site.
Nieuwmarkt is an underground metro station in the city centre of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Served by metro lines 51, 53, and 54 of the Amsterdam Metro, the station was constructed by sinking caissons with a length of 40 metres (130 ft). This construction method resulted in the demolition of parts of the Nieuwmarkt neighbourhood and was met with protests.
Waterlooplein is an underground metro station in the city centre of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Served by metro lines 51, 53 and 54 of the Amsterdam Metro, the station was constructed by sinking caissons with a length of 40 metres (130 ft), with the first one being lowered in 1972. There were "open tube" days in 1975 showcasing the station, which was the first time the public got access to the underground tunnels of the metro system.
The Moses and Aaron Church, in the Waterlooplein neighborhood of Amsterdam, is officially the Roman Catholic Church of St. Anthony of Padua. Originally a clandestine church, it was operated by Franciscan priests at a house on Jodenbreestraat ["Jewish Broad Street"], where the wall tablets of Moses and Aaron hung on the wall. In 1970, the present church was designated as a Cultural Heritage Monument of the Netherlands.
The Maupoleum (1971–1994) was a building on Amsterdam's Jodenbreestraat. Built in 1971, it acquired a reputation for being unattractive before being demolished in 1994.
The Weerbaarheidsafdeling was the paramilitary arm of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB), the fascist political party that collaborated with the German occupiers of the Netherlands during World War II. The organization, roughly equivalent to the German SA, was founded in 1932 by Anton Mussert, co-founder of the NSB in 1931 and its leader until the end of the war. Members wore and marched in black uniforms and were thus called "blackshirts". In 1933 the Dutch government banned the wearing of uniforms, and the WA was disbanded in 1935 in order to forestall the Dutch government's banning it. In 1940, after the German invasion, the WA became openly active again, and more ruthless than before. They specialized in violent attacks, particularly on the Dutch Jewish population.
The Snoekjesgracht is a small canal in Amsterdam, in the Lastage neighborhood.
The Leprozengracht was a canal in Amsterdam that defined one side of the Vlooienburg island. Leprozengracht and the connected Houtgracht canal were filled in 1882 to form the Waterlooplein.
The Houtgracht was a canal in Amsterdam that defined one side of Vlooienburg island. Houtgracht and the connected Leprozengracht canal were filled in 1882 to form the Waterlooplein.
The Markengracht was a canal in Amsterdam. For many years it was at the heart of the slums of the poor Jewish neighborhood. It was filled in 1968 as part of a complete rehabilitation of the area combined with construction of the IJtunnel, opened on 30 October 1968. It is now the site of a complex of new residential buildings.