At around three o'clock in the
morning on Thursday 18 April 1929, one of the most famous buildings
in Amsterdam's history caught fire and burnt to the ground. The
Paleis voor Volksvlijt, also known as the Amsterdam Crystal Palace,
had stood on a site near the River Amstel since 1864. The cause of
the fire was never discovered.
The man who had dreamed up the palace was Amsterdam doctor and philanthropist Samuel Sarpathi. Sarpathi had been impressed by the Crystal Palace in London, and, as historian Richter Roegholt explains, he thought a similar building in Amsterdam could only benefit the city.
Helping the poor
"Samuel Sarphati was a typical child
of the enlightenment. He was a Jewish medical man, and he wanted to
bring into practice the old ideals of the 18th century, which the
enlightened liberal bourgeoisie had inherited," says Roegholt.
"Amsterdam was in the grip of an economic depression and he was one
of the very few people - outside the small circle of regents who
governed the city - who took the initiative to help the poor. The
city was crowded, the slums were terrible, so he designed a quarter
where, as a centre point, the "Palace for Popular Arts and Craft"
was built."
The palace hosted industrial, agricultural and trade exhibitions, and at the same time it was a place where the performing arts could be staged. There were also lectures about science. At a time when Amsterdam did not yet have its "Concertgebouw" concert hall, nor its famous orchestra, there was a resident symphony orchestra in the Crystal Palace - one of the first in the Netherlands.
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Plan to rebuild
Now a group of prominent Amsterdammers,
chaired by Professor Emile Wennekes, wants to rebuild the crystal
palace. Professor Wennekes, who wrote a doctoral thesis about the
building, believes its beauty is reason enough to undertake the
project.
"It was surely a remarkable sight and it looked like a sort of cathedral, but a cathedral made of iron and glass, with little towers, and beautiful decorations. It must have stood out. It used to be on the outskirts of Amsterdam but the site is now, because the city has expanded over the years, right in the middle. In fact, the crystal palace played a tremendously important role because it triggered the first large scale city expansion since the 17th century. Because there were so many visitors, even from abroad, it was a sort of people magnet."
Kitsch
But not everybody is in favour of rebuilding.
Richter Roegholt, for example, claims the palace was not even
widely admired at the time: "It was deemed kitsch. Nobody wept a
tear about it. It was a product of the ugly times in building."
Roegholt also points out a significant obstacle to
the plan – the Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank,
occupies the site where the palace used to stand. "It's an idiotic
idea, because the location is occupied. The land was sold to the
Nederlandsche Bank. It would also cost even more to tear down the
bank building than it would to build the new palace."
And just how much is would it cost to build a new crystal palace? Wim T Schippers, a presenter on Dutch television, and a founder of the foundation chaired by Professor Wennekes, believes it would cost around half a billion euros. "But money is not the point," he says. "There's money enough and there are people willing to spend it on that beautiful building. Everyone I know would love to see it back. And financial people say it would be a good investment. We have to make a good business plan and we're working on it – it is possible."
But will it ever get built? Who knows? Professor Wennekes believes so: "I'd say that we should be able to open the gates in September 2012." Some, but not all, Amsterdammers may well be pencilling that date into their diaries.
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Tags: Amsterdam Crystal Palace, Bertine Krol, Paleis voor Volksvlijt