Restaurant Hope on d'Swarte Walvis (De Hoop op d'Swarte Walvis), Zaanse Schans
Specialty restaurant; former orphanage from the 18th century; combined with a 19th century house and an 18th century herring net house, big terrace at the Zaan with a view on the Gortershoek; the side façade of the herring net house an a lot of antique tiling.
A 19th-century local whaling ship, the "Hope for the Black Whale" occupies a refined brick building that now stands amid Zaanse Schans's green-painted houses, having been originally constructed as an orphanage in nearby Westzaan.
The front part of this restaurant used to be an orphanage and was built in 1717 in the village of Westzaan. The big fire-place is lined with tiles. The purple tiles in the middle show a picture of Solomon's judgment. The old orphanage has been joined with a nineteenth-century house, now accommodating the kitchen and the office of the restaurant, and with an eighteenth-century store-house, originally used for storing whaling gear. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century whaling was an important way of earning a living. In the trustee's room, the 'blue room', there are engravings depicting the falling of the church- steeple on the orphanage in 1843. This happened after the orphanage had been extended.
Location and Contact:
Restaurant Hope on d'Swarte Walvis (De Hoop op d'Swarte Walvis)
Kalverringdijk 15, (Zaanse Schans), Zaandam
Noord Holland, 1509 BT, Netherlands
Tel: 075-6165629
Fax: 075-6162476
Web: http://www.dewalvis.nl