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University. AMSTERDAM. 43. Route. 3¢0
Since 4808 (comp. p. 372) the old Court of Admiralty, in the
Oudezyds-Voorburgwal, has served as a Town Hall (Raadhuis, Pl.
D, 3; adm., see p. 367). The vestibule and the council-hall contain
some paintings by Corn. Anthoniss (corporation-piece, 1538), Nic.
Elias, J. Backer, and others; in the purgomaster’s room (seldom
accessible) is a *Corporation-piece by F. Bol.
The municipal University (Pl. E, 4), which originated in the
Atheneum Illustre founded in 1632 and received its present or-
ganization in 1877, has four faculties with over 56 professors,
36 lecturers and readers, and about 1000 students. It occupies an
old Oudemannenhuis (alms-house), built in 1754, and is entered
from the passage between the Oudezyds-Voorburgwal and the
Kloveniers-Burgwal. The senate-hall is adorned with portraits of
eminent scholars, some of the earlier of which are by Mierevelt and
Lievens and some of the later by Ther. Schwartse, Jan Veth, and
Josselin de Jongh.
In addition to the municipal university there is a Free University also,
foun in 1880 on a reformed evangelical basis; it has 16 professors and
is supported by bequests and voluntary subscriptions.
b. East Quarters of the Town.
Tramways to the Zoological Garden, see Nos. 9 & 10 on p. 865. The
Waterloo-Plein and the Jonas Daniel Meyer- Plein (Pl. E, F, 3) are im-
portant junctions.
The district to the E. of the Zwanen-Burgwal, bounded on the
by the Binnen-Amstel and on the N. by the Houtkoopers-Burg-
(P1. B, F, 3, 4), is the old Jewish Quarter, which is still almost
exclusively occupied by Jews. The most interesting times for a
visit are Frid. evening, 1 hr. before the beginning of the Sabbath,
Sat. evening after sunset, and Sun, after 10am. The Jews of
Amsterdam possess ten Synagogues. The largest are the High German
Synagogue (Pl. 15; F, 4), in the Nieuwe Amstel-Straat, and the
synagogue of the Portuguese Jews (Pl. 16; F, 3), in the Muider-
Straat, erected in 1670 by Dorsman. ‘The latter, said to be an
imitation of the Temple of Solomon, possesses a large number of
costly vessels (adm. on application to the sacristan), The persecution
of the Jews in Spain during the 14th and 45th cent., in Portugal a
little later, and finally also in the Spanish Netherlands, drove many
of them to seek an asylum at Amsterdam, where they enjoyed com-
plete religious toleration, though civil rights were not granted to
them until 1796. Many German and Polish Jews also, in order to
escape from the persecutions to which they were subjected in their
own countries, flocked to Amsterdam, which they regarded almost
as a second Jerusalem. The wealth of the Jewish community was
such as to render it one of the most influential in the city. In the
numerous dissensions between the States General and the Stadt-
holders, the Jews always took the part of the latter.
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