Steven van Lamsweerde, The Amersfoort Stone Tract, 1661 by Atelier Liesjes

Artwork after Johannes van Wijckersloot.

The Amersfoort Boulder has given the city and its inhabitants the nicknames 'Keistad' and 'Keientrekkers'. The story of how this boulder ended up in Amersfoort goes as follows: in 1661 the poet and squire Everard Meyster made a bet that he could get the Amersfoorters to drag a large granite boulder from the Utrechtse Heuvelrug to the city. Meyster managed to convince the people of Amersfoort in exchange for beer and pretzels, and with the help of a sledge and a pulling force the boulder was dragged into the city, to the Varkensmarkt, where it was placed on a pedestal. When the people of Amersfoort realised that Meyster had let them carry out a senseless task, the boulder was buried in the ground. Meyster, who was afraid that the annoyance of the population would affect him personally, fled to Utrecht. He settled in a house that he called De Krakeling, after the pretzels that he had promised the people of Amersfoort for dragging the boulder. The building on the street called Achter Sint Pieter, on the corner of the street now known as Keistraat, is named after the Amersfoort boulder. In 1903, when the shame of the Amersfoorters for the blunder of their ancestors had shrunk, the boulder was dug up. Since 1953 the boulder is at its present spot: at the Stadsring, near the Arnhemsestraat.

Steven van Lamsweerde, printmaker, draughtsman. Born Utrecht, the Netherlands ca 1620, died 1686-11-27