Kalverringdijk 10

‘Huisje van juffrouw Albestel’, who by all accounts was petulant, fickle and not easily satisfied… Kalverringdijk 10 had to be relocated from the center of Koog aan de Zaan, to make way for the construction of the Coen Tunnel Viaduct in the mid-1960s. The 18th century merchant’s house was known there as ‘het huisje van juffrouw Albestel’. The resident, Stijntje Kluijver-Smit, was renowned for her quirks and caprices, and was fond of rearranging the interior of her house. As a result, she was constantly ordering new things, hence her nickname, Juffrouw Albestel (Miss Shopalot). The stone facade was packaged in a wooden frame and relocated in its entirety to the Zaanse Schans. Above the ‘dooddeur’ (‘death door’, used only for weddings and funerals) in the middle of the facade, a reclining Neptune can be seen. This house also stands on its own little island and can only be reached by the ornate little bridge that spans the ditch alongside the road. Bridges like this one had to be high enough to permit flatboats to pass beneath them.
