Waag, Gothic weigh house in Alkmaar, Netherlands
The Waag is a weigh house on Waagplein square in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, with a Renaissance facade and a tower topped by a mechanical carillon. The carillon has 47 bells and still plays today, while the building itself serves as a museum dedicated to the region's cheese trade.
The building was created in 1582 from a former 14th-century chapel that once belonged to a hospital. It soon became the main place for weighing and controlling goods entering the town's trade.
The building now houses the Dutch Cheese Museum, where exhibits show how the cheese trade shaped local life for centuries. On Friday mornings during summer, traders in traditional white clothes carry large wheels of cheese across the square on wooden stretchers.
The square and museum are easy to reach on foot from Alkmaar's town center. The Friday summer markets draw large crowds, so arriving early in the morning gives you more room to move around the square.
The facade carries a Latin inscription that links the building's right to exist as a weigh house directly to the citizens' victory over Spanish forces. That right was considered a privilege at the time and had real consequences for the town's economic freedom.
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