In the eastern part of Amsterdam’s city centre, there is a building which has scrawls on its facade. It’s as if there was graffiti that faded over time. Not everyone knows these scrawls are in blood. This is the House of Blood Stains.
I was in Amsterdam on a cold February morning, with -13 degree Celsius (55 F) urging me on. The building – number 216 – is roughly as tall as the others on this street and overlooks the Amstel canal. It was originally built in the early 1670s1. The building has no particular architectural features and it blends in well with the other buildings on the street.
In the 17th century, it was bought by a six-time mayor of Amsterdam, Coenraad van Beuningen. He was also an ambassador and a well-respected member of society1.
His political star started to wane. The Prince of Orange, ruler of the Netherlands, wanted to invade France. van Beuningen thought this was a bad idea. He suffered for this opinion, and went into retirement. Later he invested in the East India Company and lost most of his money.
Unfortunately his mind began to slip in his final years, aggravated by the loss of most of his fortune1. In 1689, he became insane and had visions of coffins floating above the city and fireballs descending from the skies1. He began painting arcane signs and Hebrew letters on the grey facade of his home. Rumour has it he painted these signs in his own blood1.
Despite the constant weather over the centuries, the signs are faded today, but still visible. There were a few attempts at cleaning up the facade, including using acid and high-pressure hoses in the 1930s. Despite all this, the symbols and scrawls are still there today. You wouldn’t notice them if you weren’t looking for them, but they’re not going anywhere.
There’s something unusual about those markings. And we still don’t know what it is.
Use the comments below to tell us about strange markings you know of.