UvA buildings | SPUI25
From a minister’s house to a shop for skate makers, the SPUI25 national monument has a turbulent history. The building was once part of the Evangelical Lutheran community but has been rented to the UvA together with the Old Lutheran Church since 1961.
SPUI25, the academic and cultural center of the UvA, is located between Rokin and the Singel Canal. Of course, the name is a direct reference to the address on the Spui, which takes its name from the era of Amsterdam water management, just like the Dam. “Spui” means “sluice” and is intended to drain internal water and keep external water out.
Lutherans
The university rents the SPUI25 building and the adjacent UvA merchandise store from the Evangelical Lutheran community. The Lutherans came to Amsterdam in the early sixteenth century and founded this community in 1588. Due to Amsterdam trading interests in the Baltic Sea area, where the Lutheran church was prominent, the community grew quickly and they were thus allowed to build churches. The Old Lutheran Church, together with its adjacent buildings, was the first.
A few centuries later, the pastors of the Old Lutheran Church saw the street scene change drastically. In 1882 the water had to make way for the tram. The Spui was filled in so that a tram could connect the station to Leidseplein via Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. More than a decade later, in 1893, the pastor's home was replaced by a new building, which has had the status of a national monument since 2001.
Stores
Beginning in 1893, the building description was “shops and offices.” There was a porcelain shop, an insurance company, and an art dealer. But the Frisian skate maker F.E. Eikenberg also managed to settle on the Spui in 1943. In that year, the Eikenberg family no longer sold skates but presented itself as a contemporary Blokker, “a warehouse for household goods.” It advertised such articles as wooden ladders, milk buckets, stable buckets, and storm lanterns.
The rooms at the rear and the upper floors were still used by the Lutherans. But due to the decline in regular church attendance at the beginning of the twentieth century, the church board chose to rent the entire church and buildings to the UvA in 1961. Since then, the university has organized lectures, symposiums, graduation ceremonies, and doctoral award ceremonies there. On Sundays, the church is still used by the Lutheran community.
.jpg)
2007
The UvA merchandise store used to be located on the site of the current SPUI25, but it had to make way for the new academic and cultural center of the UvA. After a successful pilot with comedian Freek de Jonge and literary critic Kees Fens, SPUI25 was officially opened in 2007. Since then, around 300 public programs have been organized every year on various topics, from Japanese philosophy to migration. From the hall, via the UvA gown room, it still has access to the Old Lutheran Church, an artifact from the heyday of the Lutherans.
