Het Huis met den Hoofden
Het Huis met den Hoofden—“the House with the Heads”—is a Renaissance canal house on the Keizersgracht that earned its name from six head-shaped ornaments set into the façade. Built in 1622, it was commissioned for Nicolaas Sohier, a wealthy stock trader and art lover. The Renaissance façade is attributed to Hendrick de Keyser, but because he died in 1621, the work was likely completed by his son Pieter de Keyser. Those six “heads” carry two competing stories: a legend links them to thieves who were said to be beheaded, while another interpretation identifies them as Roman gods—Apollo, Ceres, Mercury, Minerva, Bacchus, and Diana—mapped onto arts, agriculture, trade, wisdom, wine, and the hunt. Soon after Sohier lived here, the property passed to Louis de Geer in 1634, and over four generations the house became a nerve center for exchange in trade, science, philosophy, and culture. …
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