Handboogdoelen, Amsterdam
former civic military guard that was stationed where today's Singel 421 stands in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
The Handboogdoelen ("longbowmen's shooting range") is a building on the Singel canal in Amsterdam, near Koningsplein square. It dates back to the early 16th century and originally served as headquarters and shooting range of the local schutterij (civic guard). Most of the current building at Singel 421 dates to the 18th century and is part of the main complex of the Amsterdam University Library. The Doelenzaal hall on the ground floor of the building (not to be confused with the Doelenzaal on Kloveniersburgwal canal) is used for lectures, meetings, receptions and doctoral dissertations. The building has rijksmonument status.
History
Shooting range
The Handboogdoelen, also known as the Garnalendoelen, Grote Doelen or St. Sebastiaansdoelen (after the patron saint of archers, Saint Sebastian) was one of three doelens (shooting ranges) for the Amsterdam schutterij (civic guard). The other two shooting ranges were the Voetboogdoelen and Kloveniersdoelen, located along the Singel and Kloveniersburgwal canals respectively. The Handboogdoelen civic guard was armed with longbows, while the Voetboogdoelen civic guard wielded crossbows and the Kloveniersdoelen civic guard used an early type of musket, the arquebus. The headquarters of the Handboogdoelen was the largest and grandest of the three.
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This entry incorporates text from “Handboogdoelen, Amsterdam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.