About a house and a cannonball

This pretty canal in my birth town Alkmaar has a very special monument. You can see it on the left corner by the bridge. Yes, that green house is almost entirely built of wood (except for 1 stone wall inside), and it is one of 2 wooden houses still surviving in Alkmaar.

According to legend, this house was built a few years before the Spanish siege of 1573. The owner was a preacher named Jan Arentsz. When the cannonball hit the house, only a spinningwheel and a tub got destroyed, and the occupants of the house miraculously survived without so much as a scratch….

One thought on “About a house and a cannonball

  1. Thank you for sending these out. They are fascinating bits which might otherwise go unnoticed, unmarked and remain unknown.

    Like

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