A Town Gate in Leerdam

The gate in this picture was already gone when it was painted. The Steigerpoort was built around 1560 as part of Leerdam's fortifications, one of four town gates, and it led from the streets to the harbour and the river Linge. By the 19th century the town was growing and its walls were in the way, so in 1863 Leerdam pulled the Steigerpoort down, together with a second gate. The Rijksmuseum dates Weissenbruch's canvas to around 1868 to 1870, so he was painting a building that no longer stood, probably from studies made before the demolition. A much older record of the gate also survives, a sketch made from the river Linge around 1690 by the painter Pieter Mulier the Younger.