Internationaal Theater Amsterdam

Piecing together the past here feels a bit like working a cold case. The clues point back to the Stadsschouwburg on the Leidseplein—later folded into the identity of Internationaal Theater Amsterdam—but at street level the story survives only indirectly. Today, a memorial marks the spot where this major theatre presence once stood.

Tragedy before the neo-Renaissance

Start with the pattern of fire. Amsterdam’s earlier “city theatre” cycles of building and burning were not exceptions; they were part of the city’s theatrical reality. In 1664, it was decided that the smaller theatre of Van Campen had to make way for a larger, Baroque-minded replacement. That new theatre opened on 26 May 1665, and its first stone was laid by the youngest daughter of the playwright Jan Vos. The building’s machinery was so theatrical that it could let men “fall through the air” or disappear below the stage, and the interior decorations involved Gerard de Lairesse. The machine-age ambition, however, came with risk. On 7 May 1772, during a performance, the theatre caught fire—rapidly—after a theatre servant went around the stage lighting with a naked candle. The blaze killed 18 people, destroyed 22 houses nearby, and was so extensive it could be seen as far away as The Hague, Utrecht, and on the island of Texel.