1. What exactly are you looking at?
From the Amsteldijk tram stop you spot them straight away: two giant wooden gnomes, 2.5 metres tall, sitting on the dormer windows of numbers 251 and 255. The gnome on the right seems to be throwing a red ball to the other one. And according to local legend, he sometimes really does. At midnight. Or on New Year's Eve. Or on 29 February. But only when nobody's looking, of course.
Children from the neighbourhood love them, and who can blame them? These mythical little men turn the Ceintuurbaan into a fantasy landscape.
2. Who are those gnomes anyway?
Nobody knows exactly why they're there. But that doesn't stop anyone from trying to explain it:
- The gnomes symbolise two contractors who literally "passed the ball" to each other during construction in 1884-1885.
- They are said to refer to a client with the surname Van Ballegooijen (which sounds a lot like 'ball thrower'). A name that fits the story suspiciously well, but for which there is no evidence whatsoever.
- Or perhaps they are simply architectural inside jokes by the master builder himself.
Remarkably, not a single written version of these stories exists from before 1980, according to Ons Amsterdam. So there's a good chance they arose later or were deliberately invented. And yet: it feels as if they've always been there.
3. Who built this house?
The man behind the masterpiece is Antonius Cornelis Boerma (1852-1908), an architect from Leiden who made his name in Amsterdam. In 1885 he completed the House with the Gnomes, but that year also became his most tragic. Within a single week he lost both his young sons.
Still he carried on building undeterred: the Lutkie & Smit paper warehouse on the Nieuwendijk, the flamboyant Café Bisschop on the Dam and parts of the abattoir site on the Cruquiusweg. Boerma loved monumental facades, bay windows with pointed arches and imaginative decoration. His style: an eclectic mix of neo-Gothic, Renaissance and Swiss chalet style. A kind of architectural buffet.
4. What can you see?
Take a good look at the House with the Gnomes and you'll see:
- Gnomes with a ball
- Two large green eagles (safely stored away in the attic in the 1970s)
- Chubby putti (classical baby angels)
- Little faces, so-called tronies, in the porches
- Flamboyant roofs with wooden ornaments
- Stained-glass fanlights
The building is 27 metres wide and 17 metres tall, and originally consisted of six rental homes. At a time when the Ceintuurbaan was still largely undeveloped, this complex must have stood out like an extravagant cake on a bare plate.
5. Can you look inside?
Yes, but only to a very limited extent. During the Open Monumentendagen (Heritage Open Days) you can catch a glimpse of the bel-etage (raised ground floor) of number 253 hs, where a young family now lives. The interior is surprisingly sober: a monumental fireplace, stuccoed ceilings and old signs reading 'wachtkamer' (waiting room) and 'spreekkamer' (consulting room) still recall its days as a doctor's practice.
