Doorsnede van het Stadhuis op de Dam, door de lengte 1661

Dancker Danckerts made this cross-sectional print of Amsterdam’s Town Hall, now the Royal Palace, sometime in the mid-17th century. The Town Hall was a potent symbol of Amsterdam’s Golden Age, a period defined by its vast wealth and expansive global trade. But this wealth was built on the backs of enslaved people. The Dutch West India Company played a central role in the transatlantic slave trade, and Amsterdam’s elite, including those who commissioned and frequented the Town Hall, directly benefited from this exploitation. This print offers us more than just an architectural blueprint; it invites us to reflect on the stories and labor that are obscured in this grand structure. It encourages us to consider whose stories are told, and whose are left out. What does it mean to celebrate architectural achievements when they are rooted in profound human suffering?