The was built between 1649 and 1656, the first church in the city designed from the drawing board as a Protestant one. It gained its most famous grave in February 1677, when Benedictus de Spinoza was buried here, close to . Six carriages and a long line of notables brought him from his room on the Paviljoensgracht to the Spui.
The grave was rented. In 1738 the lease ran out, the grave was cleared, and his bones were probably scattered through the soil of the churchyard. Anyone standing here is looking at a spot that nobody can pinpoint any more.
Two hundred and fifty years after his death, something finally appeared. In 1927 a flat stone was laid behind the church, carrying his seal and the word caute, be careful. Almost three decades later a private citizen from Rijswijk added a standing monument, with a block of black basalt from the mountains of Galilee and on it the Hebrew word amcha, your people.
The unveiling was meant to mark three hundred years since . Around a hundred and twenty-five people came, among them the Israeli ambassador and a government delegation. Nobody came from the Dutch Jewish community.
The next stop stands directly to the north of here: the white city hall on the Spui.
Sources. Story: Joods Erfgoed Den Haag en Spinoza Den Haag over de begrafenis in 1677, de ruiming van het huurgraf in 1738, de gedenksteen van 1927 en de onthulling van het Amcha-monument op 3 september 1956; Rijksmonumentenregister nr. 17997; Beeldende Kunst in de Openbare Ruimte Den Haag over het monument van J.G. Wertheim. Het aantal aanwezigen bij de onthulling en het ontbreken van de Nederlands-joodse gemeenschap zijn nog te verifieren bij het Haags Gemeentearchief. Photos: 1. Kputinta, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons 2. Giessen, G. van uit het Haags Gemeente Archief
