The Amsterdam Waag · The Anatomy Theatre Upstairs

The Waag on the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam began as a city gate and later became a house for weighing goods. In the seventeenth century the surgeons’ guild rented the anatomy theatre upstairs and held public dissections; with a ticket, anyone could watch.

Those dissections changed the skill of many physicians, and they also gave the building a different name in the rumours of Amsterdam.

Today it houses a café and a restaurant. The staff do not bring up what happened upstairs, but the guild marks are still on the reliefs of the outer wall.

Urban Legends / Amsterdam · Netherlands / 1488