Stadsschouwburg

At that time, there were no permanent theater buildings in Amsterdam, and the shipping company cherries performed on temporary stages, from carts (during processions) or in public spaces.

In 1617, the dramatists Samuel Coster and Gerbrand Adriaenszoon Bredero - along with their Rederijkerskamer "In Liefde Bloeyende" - founded the Duytsche Academy.

The Amsterdam story writer Jan Wagenaar gives an ample description of this building, mentioning in particular the theatre machinery, through which men could fall through the air or disappear below the stage.

The fire quickly burnt itself out, yet killed 18 people, destroyed 22 houses in the surroundings, and was so large that he it could be seen all the way from The Hague, Utrecht and on the island of Texel.

The city theatre moved to the Leidseplein and opened on 13 September 1789 with the première of Lucretia Wilhelmina van Merken's tragedy Jacob Simonszoon de Ryk.

[citation needed] From the end Second World War, until the opening of the Stopera in 1986, the Dutch National Opera[1] was based in the Stadsschouwburg.

Present-day Stadsschouwburg
The original building in 1874
Keizersgracht 384, the old entrance gate to the theatre
The new theater catches fire, 1772
Firefighters at the burning Stadsschouwburg, February 1890 (from L'Illustration Européenne )