Huis te Zaanen

This is Huis te Zaanen in Haarlem, the Netherlands. In 1296 the castle that stood here was destroyed by the Spanish. Later the fiefdom of Zaanen fell back into the hands of teh Zaanen family, who rebuilt the castle, which was again destroyed by the Spanish in 1573. This house was reconstructed out of a former gatehouse. It's passed through several hands since and it was eventually granted to a municipality on the grounds that it be used as a public building. For a long time, it served as a branch of the local library system. Now, the upstairs consists of private apartments, and the ground floor can be hired a a meeting space. It sits in the center of a lovely, dog-friendly park.