Jan Abrahamsz. Beerstraaten: The old city hall of Amsterdam on fire (1652-1655)

(Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

A painting by the Dutch artist Jan Abrahamsz. Beerstraaten (1622-1666). In the early morning of July 7, 1652 fire broke out in the old Medieval city hall of Amsterdam. The only way of putting the fire out was with buckets of water: you can seen several lines of people who are passing on buckets of water. As a result the fire was soon out of control and the building completely burned down. The city council could only try to prevent the fire from spreading by putting large white wet sails over the surrounding buildings (visible on the left). As the city hall also was a bank, a large group of armed members of the civic guard were present to prevent any looting. A new city hall was already under construction and its scaffolding can be seen on the right in the background. The primitive way of fire control was a reason for the Dutch inventor Jan van der Heyden to invent a better fire engines . The large square in the middle of the painting is the Dam Square with the river Amstel. Painting from 1652-1655.

The Old Medieval city hall before the fire: Abraham Beerstarten - The old city hall of Amsterdam during the winter (1658-1666)