Gezicht op de Oude Doelen in Alkmaar, 1726 c. 1746

Hendrik Spilman's etching from 1726 shows us the Oude Doelen in Alkmaar, where the tower stands as a visual anchor, drawing our eyes upward. Towers have always held deep symbolic weight. Throughout history, from the Tower of Babel to medieval keeps, they signify power, aspiration, and the human desire to reach beyond earthly bounds. In religious contexts, towers often facilitate communication with the divine, much like a ladder to the heavens. The tower's presence in Spilman's depiction of the Oude Doelen, once a civic guardhouse, now a place for social gathering, suggests an enduring connection to these primal urges. Even as the building's function evolved, the tower remained, a silent witness to shifting social dynamics, a symbol of a collective memory embedded within the very stones of the structure. This isn't merely a building; it's a stage upon which human dramas unfold, against a backdrop of ever-present, reaching heights.