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. The Handboogdoelen was established shortly before 1500 as the shooting range for the
handboogschutterij (longbowmen's civic guard), and the associated building was completed around 1512. Like the adjacent Voetboogdoelen (established in 1458), the shooting range extended from the Singel canal to the back side of the houses on
Kalverstraat. Amsterdam's militia
guilds were formed in the
Middle Ages to defend the city against attack. Around 1580, at the behest of
William of Orange, these Medieval guilds were incorporated into a new, much larger civic guard to defend the
newly Protestant city against the
Spanish during the
Dutch revolt which ultimately led to a full-blown war of independence, the
Eighty Years' War. Officers of this new civic guard were recruited from the well-to-do of Amsterdam. The Handboogdoelen was used by the civic guard from about 1509. In 1533, two
bay windows were added to the building, the first known examples of bay windows in Amsterdam. The shooting range lay behind the building, stretching north towards the
Kalverstraat. A small gate provided access to the shooting range. This gate, dating to about 1650, is still in existence and is now located on Handboogstraat, a small street running behind the building. The gate features
Doric columns and depicts
bows and arrows and
quivers. In the mid-17th century, the Eighty Years' War ended and the civic guard no longer served a military purpose. The civic guard continued to exist, but membership became an honorary position and the
doelens assumed a primarily social function. The wealthiest and most powerful citizens of
Dutch Golden Age Amsterdam came together in the
doelens to eat, drink and smoke. In 1650 the city gave permission for houses to be built on the former shooting ranges of the Hand- and Voetboogdoelen. For these houses, two new streets were constructed: the Handboogstraat and Voetboogstraat. A 1968 restoration uncovered the original 16th-century building, revealing that it may contain the city's oldest remaining masonry work and the only remaining late-Medieval
mantelpiece. == Painting ==