Did you know that exotic animals such as lions and monkeys lived in our city? We are not talking about the old zoo, but about far before that. The Count of Holland, William IV, had built a lion house on the Buitenhof and bones have now been found there.
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Two lion bones were found at the Buitenhof of a front paw of a young lion. This is very special because these are the oldest lion bones in the Netherlands. They come from the period of 858 until 1625.
Lion’s House
The Count van Holland got in 1347 a pair of lions from the Duchy of Guelders. A nice gift, but keeping those lions wasn’t cheap. All documents and bills have been found and it states that in 1358 the count 119 sheep and
Later there have been more exotic animals such as dromedaries, monkeys and a leopard.
1625 Buitenhof. Playing monkeys and a donkey. Image of the Adriaen Piersz. collection of The Hague Municipal Archives
Botten
The bones of the lions were found in a pit, behind the Prison Gate. It concerns the bones of a young Berber lion from an area between Egypt and Morocco. This one is extinct in the wild. The lion resembles the African variant but with a very large mane.
Lion bones. Photographer Frank Jansen
The bones are from 03 October to on display in November in the Atrium of the City Hall during the exhibition ‘Forty years of archeology’ .
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