Goodbye Demba, Kianga and Kacela. Lion Gablestones, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Since 1927 the Lions of the Amsterdam Zoo ARTIS have lived on the Kerbert Terrace, a state of the art area behind a moat without the until then requisite barred fencing. After almost a century, renewal was called for to give them more room but Covid-19 reduced the flow of paying visitors and thus also the Zoo's income. So construction plans had to be iced; a new, more spacious home was sought for our Giant Cats, Demba and his wives Kianga and Kacela. It was found in the zoological garden La Palmyre in the Charente-Maritime of southwestern France, more or less on the Atlantic coast. Goodbyes are scheduled for the middle of February. Oh! so sad, a zoo without Lions.
Incidentally, that terrace was named for Coenraad Kerbert (1890-1927), a well-known herpetologist and the second director of the zoo.
Under a tearing sky this morning I walked in the city and found two Lion Gablestones.
The top gilded, rampant Lion is part of a house originally built in 1565, Sint Annenstraat 12. From 1897 it was safeguarded in the Rijksmuseum but replaced when the house was finally restored in 1994.
The bottom guardian Lion is from a house in my neighborhood that was built in 1668. It was torn down to make way for the new metro but the stone was saved. It was to have been returned to this area (the Lastage) but instead was sold to butcher Fred de Leeuw in the Utrechtsestraat (at 92) where it was placed with a small ceremony in 2000.
But fierce as they look neither Lion roars...
Goodbye Demba, Kianga and Kacela. Lion Gablestones, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Since 1927 the Lions of the Amsterdam Zoo ARTIS have lived on the Kerbert Terrace, a state of the art area behind a moat without the until then requisite barred fencing. After almost a century, renewal was called for to give them more room but Covid-19 reduced the flow of paying visitors and thus also the Zoo's income. So construction plans had to be iced; a new, more spacious home was sought for our Giant Cats, Demba and his wives Kianga and Kacela. It was found in the zoological garden La Palmyre in the Charente-Maritime of southwestern France, more or less on the Atlantic coast. Goodbyes are scheduled for the middle of February. Oh! so sad, a zoo without Lions.
Incidentally, that terrace was named for Coenraad Kerbert (1890-1927), a well-known herpetologist and the second director of the zoo.
Under a tearing sky this morning I walked in the city and found two Lion Gablestones.
The top gilded, rampant Lion is part of a house originally built in 1565, Sint Annenstraat 12. From 1897 it was safeguarded in the Rijksmuseum but replaced when the house was finally restored in 1994.
The bottom guardian Lion is from a house in my neighborhood that was built in 1668. It was torn down to make way for the new metro but the stone was saved. It was to have been returned to this area (the Lastage) but instead was sold to butcher Fred de Leeuw in the Utrechtsestraat (at 92) where it was placed with a small ceremony in 2000.
But fierce as they look neither Lion roars...