The Waag is a former

weigh house A weighhouse or weighing house is a public building at or within which goods are weighed. Most of these buildings were built before 1800, prior to the establishment of international standards for weights, and were often a large and representative ...

on the

Waterkant The Waterkant is the oldest and one of the most important streets of Paramaribo, Paramaribo, Suriname. The street is located in the historic Centrum, Paramaribo, centre on the Suriname River, and was the location where ships used to arrive. The ...

in the historic

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

Paramaribo Paramaribo ( , , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's p ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

. The building is a monument, and a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

History

The Waag was built around 1686 to uniformly weigh and levy taxes on goods arriving in the

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

. It was located in the harbour near the warehouses of the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

, and was initially a basic building. It which was extended several times, and a

wharf A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

was constructed nearby on the

Suriname River The Suriname River ( Dutch: ''Surinamerivier'') is long and flows through the country of Suriname. Its sources are located in the Guiana Highlands on the border between the Wilhelmina Mountains and the Eilerts de Haan Mountains (where it is kn ...

. In January 1821, a fire consumed a large part of the city centre including de Waag An architectural competition was organized to rebuild the building. Willem de Vroome was the architect in charge of the rebuilding, and in 1824, the current building was completed.

Building

The Waag has been constructed with

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

ed brick, and is one of the few historic buildings in the centre not made out of wood. The building has two stories, and two 12 metre long piers extending towards the river. Inside the building is a wide open space supported by four massive columns, allowing the merchants to arrive with horse and carriage. On the second floor, there was an office of the Bank of Suriname.

Current situation

In 1965, the harbours were relocated to Beekhuizen, and the building started to decay. The old depots near the Waag were demolished. At the late 1980s, Stichting Waag (Waag Foundation) was established to preserve and restore the building. In 2007, a restaurant was opened in the building. The

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest Service club, service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, go ...

is located in the Waag as well. Nowadays, the Waag is known as a tourist attraction, and part of the night life.

References

{{commons category, position=left Buildings and structures in Paramaribo Weigh houses