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Medieval town hall interior11/16/2023 ![]() ![]() It was on this scaffold that in 1860 the death penalty was executed for the last time in The Netherlands.Īt the entrance of Gouda Town Hall is written Audite et alteram partem, “Hear also the other side”, a well-known juridical maxim, an indispensable element of fair justice and the concept of due process. The town hall served also as a court building. At the back of the building is a scaffold from 1697. You might think this post offers you until now only regional history, but at the long side of the town hall you can detect a pillory, a pedestal on which offenders could be mocked and denounced by the people. The flight of steps in Renaissance style dates from 1603. The new town hall has not survived completely in its late medieval form. Add to this the proverbial Gouda cheese from the rich meadows surrounding this small town, calculate a loss of importance during the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, and thus a medieval town hall can survive. The route using the Gouwe was the quickest way for merchants between Amsterdam and cities like Haarlem in the north, and Dordrecht and Rotterdam in the south. Gouda became prosperous because of its central position at the Gouwe river on which in medieval and Early Modern times freight from all Holland had to pass. At last between 14 the work began for a new town hall designed by Steven van Afflighem. The archives of Gouda are now kept by the Streekarchief Midden-Holland in Gouda. A fire in 1438 had damaged the old town hall. It takes pride of place on the websites devoted to the history of Gouda. The original drawings for most of the 72 windows have largely been preserved, and they will be put on display at MuseumGouda from Novemonwards after restoration of the paper of these life size drawings.Īpart from the Sint Janskerk, one of the largest churches in The Netherlands, the gothic town hall at the market place of Gouda is the town’s chief attraction. William of Orange founded a window, as did even the Spanish king Philip II. New stained glass windows were donated by cities like Haarlem and Amsterdam, by collegiate chapters such as the Oudmunster chapter in Utrecht and other institutions. After a fire in 1552 the Sint Janskerk was rebuilt very quickly. It was a rainy day, the church is enclosed by other buildings, and photographing church windows is an art in itself, and thus I will not present here any picture of this church. It was difficult to take pictures of the Sint Janskerk in Gouda and its magnificent sixteenth-century stained glass windows. When you are going from Utrecht to Rotterdam or The Hague you have to pass Gouda, but I have only seldom visited this town which belongs to the group of classic Dutch towns in the medieval county Holland. ![]()
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