The Eik en Linden inn was built on swampy land and later housed wolves and boars
The Eik en Linden inn opened in 1830 in a marshy area of Amsterdam that was later incorporated into the Artis zoo grounds. Over the decades, the building transitioned from a concert venue and social space to animal housing, currently sheltering endangered Visayan warty pigs.
The inn known as Eik en Linden was established around 1830 in a former marshy district of Amsterdam, a location that had been raised and converted into a park area with gardens in the late 17th century. By the 1830s, the venue hosted concerts to attract visitors to the area. Following the founding of the Artis Magistra society in 1838, the organization acquired the inn in 1863 to host their 25th-anniversary celebrations in its large banquet hall. By 1875, the structure was repurposed to house animals, beginning with wolves and eventually transitioning to other species, such as the endangered Visayan warty pigs currently kept there.
The site also served military purposes, as the Ministry of War occupied the upper floor in 1894 to establish a carrier pigeon station as part of the Stelling van Amsterdam defenses. While the original building evolved from a leisure destination into a zoological exhibit, the Eik en Linden establishment itself relocated multiple times within the Plantage area, operating at various addresses on the Plantage Middenlaan since the mid-19th century.
Based on reporting by parool. Translated and condensed by LocalHeadlines.
