Kloveniersdoelen, Amsterdam

The Kloveniersdoelen ("musketeers' shooting range") was a complex of buildings in Amsterdam which served as headquarters and shooting range for the local schutterij (civic guard). The companies of kloveniers were armed with an early type of musket known as an arquebus, known in Dutch as a bus, haakbus or klover (from the French couleuvrine), hence the name kloveniers.

The Kloveniersdoelen was located at the corner of Nieuwe Doelenstraat and Kloveniersburgwal canal, both named after the former shooting range. The 19th-century Doelen Hotel now stands on the spot. Two kloveniers are depicted on the domed tower of the hotel, another reference to the history of this location.

Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch was commissioned for the great hall of the Kloveniersdoelen.

The Kloveniersdoelen was one of three doelens (shooting ranges) for the Amsterdam schutterij (civic guard). The other two shooting ranges were the Handboogdoelen and Voetboogdoelen, both located along the Singel. The Handboogdoelen civic guard was armed with longbows, while the Voetboogdoelen civic guard wielded crossbows and the Kloveniersdoelen civic guard used an early type of musket, the arquebus. The Kloveniersdoelen was the oldest of the three.

Amsterdam's militia guilds were formed in the Middle Ages to defend the city against attack. Around 1580, at the behest of William of Orange, these Medieval guilds were incorporated into a new, much larger civic guard to defend the newly Protestant city against the Spanish during the Dutch revolt which ultimately led to a full-blown war of independence, the Eighty Years' War. Officers of this new civic guard were recruited from the well-to-do of Amsterdam.

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