page_title: Lastage
section_title: The amelioration
hierarchical_section_title: Lastage / History / The amelioration
caption_attribution_description: Kromboomssloot canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Bridge 292 (Schottenburchsbrug).
context_page_description: Lastage is a neighborhood in the Centrum borough of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is located between the Geldersekade and Oudeschans canals, just east of old medieval city. Today, the neighbourhood is also known as Nieuwmarktbuurt due to the fact that the Nieuwmarkt is comprised in the area; it is protected as a heritage site.
context_section_description: Around 1586, the city started drawing up plans to determine how the streets, alleys and defensive walls would be laid out. The local landowners were compelled to demolish the existing buildings, such as fences, ropewalks, drying sheds and tar houses, and to raise the land with sand. The city would provide the sand and the stones needed for pavements and embankments. For this "amelioration", the landowners would have to pay a yet to be determined sum in tax. The construction ban, which had been instituted eight years before, was lifted. Before being allowed to build, the amelioration tax needed to be determined for each plot of land. To this end, each plot of land was measured to calculate the loss of land to newly built streets, ditches and ramparts.
  It wasn't until 1589 before construction started on the plots south of the Rechtboomssloot, which the city had now purchased and raised. The building activities would spread eastward from there. At the Oudeschans rampart, a high bridge was built to the island Uilenburg. The island would be part of a second expansion, which was planned to accommodate the now flourishing and rapidly expanding shipbuilding industry. This expansion was intended so the shipyards and mast makers could be relocated, and parts of Lastage could be reorganized. In January 1595, the blacksmiths were banned from Lastage, as they were smelly, noisy and posed a fire hazard. They relocated to the northern part of the island Uilenburg.
caption: Kromboomssloot
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