City Secrets Rotterdam

Bag Carriers' House

Heavy bags, heavier stories.

1 min readVoorstraat 13

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Narrated audio from our Rotterdam tour

The Bag Carriers’ House from 1653 became the guild hall in 1670. Each shipment rang a copper bell; men then rolled dice – whoever threw six earned the wage. A 1706 by-law set sack weight and fines. In the 19th century the building served as police and fire station; in WWII it briefly acted as a jail. The city restored it in 1991. Since 1993 theatre company Drijzand stages harbour-life plays here; inside visitors see the bell, guild tankards and lucky die.

Map showing Voorstraat 13, 3024 RE Rotterdam
Voorstraat 13, 3024 RE RotterdamRotterdam
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Sources. Story: Source Story: Photos: Source Photo: Johan Bakker, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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