Amsterdam Gable Stones Tour | Historic Zeedijk Walking Guide

📍 Route: Rushing = 45 min; lingering with coffees/photos = 90 min+.

📋 How to use this guide

• Read each stop before you move on; the next address and distance are in the heading.
• Most stones sit high on façades, zoom with your phone camera for details.
• All addresses are on the east (odd) or west (even) side of Zeedijk unless noted.

1️⃣ Nieuwmarkt 4 – Oldest Gable Stone in Amsterdam (START)

📍 Where? Waag tower, corner facing Zeedijk.

🔍 Detail. Placed 28 April 1488 to mark the first stone of St Anthony’s Gate (now the Waag). The Middle-Dutch text reads: “Op den XXVIII dach in April … leide men den eersten steen van dese poort.” This medieval gate is the perfect launch-point for your stone hunt.

🚶‍♂️ Walk 1 min: step into Zeedijk and amble north.

2️⃣ Zeedijk 125 – In ‘t Geschud Varken (Shaken Pig) 1996

🐷 Modern stone shows an upside-down piggy-bank showering coins. Installed during a renovation to tease the project’s ballooning costs, the coins even carry the developer’s initials!

3️⃣ Zeedijk 123 – D’Hulse 1967

🌿 This small-scale replica replaces the original 18th-century gable stone D’HULSE, which remained here until the winter of 1945 before disappearing. Depicting an evergreen holly tree with the fading inscription HET TIJDLIJK VERGAAT / ‘T EEWIGE BESTAAT (“What is, passes… the eternal remains”), it was recreated in faience by the Westraven factory and set in place in 1967.

4️⃣ Zeedijk 120 – Biblical Motto Stone 1854

✝️ A plain text tablet under the first-floor centre window: “Aan Gods zeegen is ‘t al gelegen – Ao 1854.” The only 19th-century stone on the street; lettering is now faint.

🚶‍♂️ Walk ± 30 m north to no. 103.

5️⃣ Zeedijk 103 – D’ Brande Wyns Ketel (The Brandy Still) 1997

🥃 A gable stone shows a distilling kettle, three barrels, and a tub, recalling the 17th-century Dutch “invention” of brandy. Originally made by distilling French wine for easier transport, the undiluted spirit proved popular for its strength (minimum 35% alcohol). The original stone at Zeedijk 103 disappeared after 1910, leaving only its inscription. In 1997, sculptor Jan Hilbers recreated it from a 1910 drawing, restoring the historic house name D’BRANDE WYNS KEETEL.

🚶‍♂️ Walk ± 40 m; the next three stones sit side-by-side.

🎨 Historic Stone Trio

6️⃣ Zeedijk 84 – De Bode op Emden (Courier to Emden) c. 1625

📨 A 17th-century gable stone shows a man in early 1600s dress holding a letter and a money pouch, flanked by stones reading ANNO 1660. The inscription DE BODE OP EMDEN (“The Messenger to Emden”) refers to Herman Jansz. Boode, who ferried business correspondence and payments between Amsterdam and the German port of Emden. Likely carved around 1630, the stone was reused during an 1660 renovation and restored in 1960 and 1996.

7️⃣ Zeedijk 82 – Duyn Sigt (Dune View) 1725

🏞️ Polychrome dune landscape: hunter returning home, rabbits scampering, thatched cottage. 1996 restoration uncovered the original palette, note buttons on the hunter’s coat!

8️⃣ Zeedijk 80 – De Levensgenieter (The Bon Vivant) 2006

🎵 Tobias Snoep’s colourful tribute to Amsterdam’s street-organ (draaiorgel) culture. Commissioned by the Street-Organ Committee and unveiled 2 Sept 2006.

🚶‍♂️ Walk ± 60 m.

🐾 Famous Animal Stones

9️⃣ Zeedijk 47 – De Lachende Luipaard (Laughing Leopard) 1717

🐆 This early 17th-century gable stone depicts a slightly cartoonish leopard, likely inspired by exotic animals brought to Amsterdam by long-distance ships and displayed in private menageries. The house at Zeedijk 47, long known as “The Leopard,” is recorded in deeds from 1662 onward. Removed during a 1985 renovation and stored by Monument Care, the restored stone returned in 2013. In certain light, the leopard appears to smile, earning it the nickname The Laughing Leopard.

🔟 Zeedijk 43 – Het Kalf (The Calf) date unknown

🐄 Tiny rustic relief: a calf being offered greens. Origins and sculptor remain a mystery; possibly once marked a dairy or butcher.

🚶‍♂️ Walk a few steps.

1️⃣1️⃣ Zeedijk 39 – Rococo Grain-Merchant Transom c. 1760

🌾 Above the restaurant “De Portugees” door: carved oak transom bursting with grain sheaves, barrels, flail, scythe & scales, restored and repainted 2003, including a new acanthus leaf.

🚶‍♂️ Walk ± 70 m.

1️⃣2️⃣ Zeedijk 25 – Spider Web 1997

🕷️ Artist Hans ‘t Mannet-je plays with Dutch homonyms: a giant spider spins its web; cryptic letters “VGL. REDE EN ROAD” conceal further wordplay. Installed by the Amsterdam Gable-Stones Association (VVAG) to enliven a blank facade.

🚶‍♂️ Walk ± 40 m to nos. 16–18.

🏰 Historic Quarter Finale

1️⃣3️⃣ Zeedijk 16-18 – Dit is in de Swarten Hoorn (The Black Horn) early 1500s

🎺 The oldest gable stone still visible in Amsterdam’s public space, this piece dates to at least 1546. It depicts a leather-strapped guild drinking horn, once passed around at gatherings for each member to take a sip of beer. The Gothic inscription reads dit.is.in.den.swarten.horen (“This is in the Black Horn”). Long misinterpreted as a post horn and even painted bright red, it was obscured for years by a lightbox before being restored in 1991.

1️⃣4️⃣ Side-wall Zeedijk 16 – De Kuiper (The Cooper) 1719

🔨 Worn but legible cooper hammering a barrel, likely inspired by a Jan Luyken print. Salvaged during metro excavations, embedded here unrestored in 1991.

1️⃣5️⃣ Zeedijk 14 – Imaginary City Gate relocated 1991

🏛️ Large relief of a domed fortified gate rescued from a Dijkstraat building demolished for the subway in 1974. Missing side volutes visible in old photos, but still an imposing reminder of the city walls.

🚶‍♂️ Walk ± 30 m.

1️⃣6️⃣ Zeedijk 19 (side wall) – The Milkmaid 1731 & “In Abbekerck” Village Scene

🥛 Carved in 1731, this gable stone shows a milkmaid with a yoke and two wooden pails. Once on Goudsbloemstraat 207, where milk dealer Willem Luijning lived in 1742, it later vanished and was recorded as lost by 1875. Rediscovered in a Wassenaar garden in 1961, it was purchased by Amsterdam’s Monument Care in 1970, restored and repainted in 1988, and placed on the side wall of Zeedijk 19, returning to the city after more than 150 years.

🏘️ This gable stone depicts a village scene with houses, a haystack, a mill, and a church topped by a stork’s nest, while the miller carries a sack of grain. Made around 1707 for Pieter Abbekerck’s house on the Palmgracht, it likely honored his birthplace of Abbekerk in North Holland. The church shown dates to the 15th century, with its brick spire added in 1656. Once inscribed, the stone later lost its caption and disappeared after the building’s demolition.

1️⃣7️⃣ Zeedijk 17 – Amsterdam Heart-Shield 1996

❤️ Heart-shaped coat-of-arms, black band with triple XXX on red, dedicated to entrepreneur Ferdinand Holzhaus. A modern flourish that lovingly caps five centuries of gevelsteen artistry.

1️⃣8️⃣ Zeedijk 12 – Candlemaker

🕯️ On the side wall of Zeedijk 12, you’ll spot a gable stone showing a candlemaker at work. He holds a rack of cotton wicks, ready to be dipped into a wheeled vat of molten wax, heated in the brick oven to his left. By repeatedly dipping and cooling the wicks, candles slowly take shape, a scene inspired by an engraving by Jan Luyken. This stone once adorned a house on Haarlemmerdijk 9, home and workshop to candlemaker Barend Hambeek in the mid-18th century.

1️⃣9️⃣ Zeedijk 10 – De Cleyne Blaauwe Fonteyn

⛲ In 1630, Bauduin de Preijs, a belt-maker, bought a house in what is now Nieuwebrugsteeg and began renovations, but died before its completion. The property, known as De Cleijne Blaeuwe Fonteijn (“The Little Blue Fountain”), passed through various owners, including other belt-makers, a carpenter, a pawnbroker’s assistant with a tea shop, and a hat-maker. The original building and its gable stone were gone by 1875, but the stone resurfaced in the 1950s. It depicts a three-tiered fountain topped by a naked, urinating boy, flanked by the Amsterdam coat of arms and draagzelen (shoulder straps used by porters) possibly referencing De Preijs’s trade.

2️⃣0️⃣ Sint Olofsteeg 8 – Beer Barrel

🍺 A gable stone shows a large horizontal beer barrel, or jopenvat, which held 112 litres of Haarlem’s famed “jopenbier,” a strong blond ale brewed since the early 14th century. An earlier building here, also called Het Jopenvat, housed a beer merchant and likely a tavern. When the new house was built in 1659, the old house sign was kept, the date still marked in wall anchors on the side wall, a rare feature in Amsterdam.

2️⃣1️⃣ Sint Olofsteeg 11 (FINISH)

🏛️ In 1961, a free-standing wall of old bricks was built against the blank side of Sint Olofssteeg 11, after the neighboring houses at numbers 7 and 9 were demolished in 1948. Nine gable stones were set into the wall, eight from the Royal Antiquarian Society’s collection and one, INDE PEILKAAN, from the Rijksmuseum depot.

🎨 The Collection Wall - Individual Stones

⛵ The Ship “‘t Huystvreest” (1745)

A gable stone shows a fully rigged three-masted ship battling wild seas, with waves seeming to spill over the stone’s edge. Dated 1745 on the stern, it likely depicts the Huys te Foreest, a VOC vessel built in 1731 in Hoorn that sailed to Japan, Batavia, Ceylon, and China. Its last recorded voyage for the Amsterdam Chamber, captained by Gerrit Blauwpot, ran from May 1744 to January 1745. The stone once adorned Haarlemmerdijk 22 and was acquired by the Royal Antiquarian Society in 1880.

☀️🌙 The Sun and Moon Pair (Late 18th century)

A gable stone of a radiant, front-facing sun forms a pair with a crescent moon stone in the same wall. Both date from the late 18th century and came from houses at Lepelstraat 20 and 20a, demolished in 1926 near today’s Carré theatre. In his 1875 Schetsboek, Jonkheer A. Lopez Suasso noted the moon and sun reliefs on nearby buildings before renumbering changed their addresses. In earlier times, builders often adorned rows of houses with themed stones, for example, Faith, Hope, and Charity for three houses, or the four seasons for four matching façades.

🦄 Noah’s Ark

A gable stone depicts Noah, his family, and animals heading to the ark before the Flood, inspired by a Jan van Londerseel engraving. Uniquely, only the unicorn from the original engraving’s animal line-up is shown. Such imagery could express faith or advertise trades, from shipbuilding to taverns or nail-making. The stone, originally on Spuistraat 50, was gifted to the Royal Antiquarian Society in 1881.

🦢 The “Pelican” of Self-Sacrifice

A gable stone shows a so-called pelican feeding her chicks with her own blood, a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice and later of maternal care, as well as social and medical aid. The legend is actually based on a mistranslated account of a vulture in the 3rd-century Physiologus. This polychrome stone, originally from Elburg, was donated to the Rijksmuseum in 1903.

🔧 The Shipwright’s Drill (Early 17th century)

A gable stone shows a hanging wooden brace with a spoon bit, once used in construction and shipyards to bore deep holes for wooden pin joints. Dating to the early 17th century, it was displayed in the Waag until 1955 before moving to the Royal Antiquarian Society’s depot.

🦁 Cape Leeuwin (1622)

A gable stone forms a rebus: a lioness (leeuwin) before a wooden beacon (kaap), with a ship in the background. It refers to the 1622 VOC voyage of the Leeuwin, which charted Australia’s southernmost point, now Cape Leeuwin. The stone came from Klein Kattenburgerstraat 14–16; a replica is in the Perth Museum, Western Australia.

⚓ The Buoy Marker (17th-18th century)

A gable stone shows a mooring buoy with chain and iron weight, used to mark the sea route from Amsterdam via the Zuiderzee to Texel. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the city maintained around sixty such buoys and coastal beacons, funded by sailors’ “bakengeld” paid at the Paalhuis on the Nieuwe Brug, the same building where this stone once adorned the façade before its demolition in 1681.

💡 Practical Tips

🎯 Enjoy uncovering Amsterdam’s hidden stories, one gable stone at a time!