The Schreierstoren Amsterdam is the oldest defensive tower in Amsterdam. When it was built in 1486, Amsterdam was surrounded by the Zuiderzee with ebb and flow and Amsterdam had only 10,000 inhabitants.
The Schreierstoren became part of the city wall that was built between 1481 and 1494. Together with the Sint Antoniespoort, now the Waag, and the Regulierspoort, now the Munttoren.
Nowadays the IJ has been dammed and the view of the sea has disappeared. The Central Station replaced this view in 1889.
Most European cities had a city wall in the Middle Ages, but because Amsterdam was surrounded by water and swamps, this was not necessary.
The tower stood on a sharp piece of land, Screyhouck in old Dutch, and that gave the tower its name. The story of the weeping fishermen’s wives as their husbands set sail is a myth.
Until 1956, the Amsterdam harbor master’s office was located in the Schreierstoren. Today a restaurant anex café and the maritime bookshop L.J. Harry.
Henry Hudson, in the service of the VOC, sailed from this place to the new America and discovered the Hudson River, named after him. A plaque was placed on the tower by the Greenwich Village Historical Society in 1927. From the ancient “Tower of Tears” erected 1482 A.D. Henry Hudson set sail April 4th 1609 on the vessel “Half Moon”.