Golden Age
The last part of the main exhibit was "The Golden Age" . To show their gratitude for the city's loyal stand, William of Orange and the States of Holland awarded Alkmaar the Weight House revenues. Painting of the Weight House 1660. It was mainly cheese that was weighed and traded here. In 1679 a record 500,000 pounds was traded in a single day. That was in 1581 and it launched an economic boom: Alkmaar's own Golden Age.
Painting of the weigh house by an unknown artist
Gold from the Golden Age
Nijenburg Spherical Clock 1690
Judgement of Count Willem the Good 1618
Golden Age tour
Pierre Gole art cabinet with floral motifs
The old masters are accompanied by a collection of ceremonial silver,
Traveler's cutlery and case
including seven decorated tazza's (Goblets) and seventeenth-century porcelain and glassware of all types and sizes. A particular object is a cabinet from estate Nijenburg with beautiful paintings of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. (below)
Nijenburg Lutheran Cabinet c 1665
On the zero floor (ground floor or our first floor) there was an exhibit of the work of an artist of the name of Van Blaaderen who appeared to have phases where he emulated most of the impressionists.
Introductory text on Van Blaaderen
Van Blaaderen paintings
While we were there a woman came and asked about the Luggie - she said she had a grandson who had been paralyzed in a bicycle accident and he wanted something that made him look less 'crippled' So we showed her the scooter and she even tried it out.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in the Grote Kerk
Side nearest the square
- there were 1700 people buried there, mostly under the floor. It is actually no longer an church, but it is a very interesting building.
Floor composed of slate tile grave markers
Inside the burial stones made a clacking noise when I went over them with the scooter.
Floor burial locations
Close-up of an emblem
Each of the tombstones bears an emblem, mostly coats of arms and occupational insignia. Bob and I took some photos of the slate floor inscriptions. I asked if there was any way of telling where the various burials were, but apparently there was a meeting going on in the room where the information was.
Close-up of one of the inscriptions
Pieter Palinck and Josina Willemsdochter van Foreest
This one is copper and is now on the wall. They did identify the plaque on the wall which was for Pieter Claessoen Palinck & Josina Willemsdochter van Foreest - a husband and wife who died in 1536. The church booklet said this was a copper tombstone on the floor near where we entered, but I saw it on the wall. Rubbings have been done of this copper stone. There are also plaques on the walls. There is a textboard from 1672 with the rules on how to behave in church. In the beginning of the 16th century a brick annex was constructed in the corner of the northern transept for the bellows of the Van Covelens organ. For many years a small prison existed under this annex. Anyone exhibiting undesirable behavior in church would be imprisoned here for the night, unless he was prepared to pay a fine of three guilders. There are two textboard dating from 1605 relating in Latin and Dutch the story of the church buildings that formerly existed here
Plaques on the wall
- Next entry in the series 'Go to Amsterdam First (1950, 1965, 2009, 2016, 2018, 2022)': Gazing Around the Grote Sint Laurenskerk - 2016
- Previous entry in the series 'Go to Amsterdam First (1950, 1965, 2009, 2016, 2018, 2022)': Lunch at the Stedelijk Museum- 2016
