L'Ancien Hôtel de ville d'Amsterdam

The building in this picture was already gone when Saenredam painted it. He had drawn the medieval town hall on Dam Square over six days in 1641, when it was old and leaning and about to be pulled down. Ten years later, in July 1651, what remained of it burned to the ground in about three hours. So in 1657 Saenredam went back to that early sheet and turned it into this painting, a careful record of a place that by then existed only on paper. He even added an inscription on the step noting the fire. The city's mayors bought it and hung it in their grand new town hall, the huge classical building on the same square that had replaced the old one, so the thing it replaced would not be forgotten.