De gecroonde crab - Leiden, Netherlands
Posted by: 
naj16
N 52° 09.382 E 004° 29.580
31U E 602134 N 5779481
Something weird happened in this house....
Waymark Code: WMJRFC
Location: Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Date Posted: 12/24/2013
Views: 25
At the facade of Breestraat number 177 it is clearly to see that this are two joined houses. On the facade of the rightmost building one can be seen three plaques between the windows of the first floor.
Left a plaque in the shape of a diamond head with the caption "WIE ", the center stone has a crowned crab and has the caption “LEEFT ER”. Right a diamond head with the caption "ONBENIT" .
For onbenit, we would nowadays say 'onbenijd'; with no one to arouse envy . Probably the crab depicted here served as a symbol for envy .
The legend regarding this house:
A pharmacist, who lived in one of the buildings, ordered herbs and medicines from the Far East. One day there was a poisonous spider in one of the packages. This spider escaped and moved to the adjacent building, a tavern. Here, the spin had bitten some unsuspecting guests in their sleep, after which they deceased.This story is told in Leiden for years.
Another version of this weird story:
In this house lived a wealthy family . They had a maid. One day she brought a pot of soup inside and the family ate it. The members of the family were seriously ill and died . It turned out that the soup was poisoned , but it was remarkable that the maid , who had eaten the soup before did not become ill. The maid was found guilty and sentenced.
Some time later, in that particular room a student was reading a book, and when he saw a large spider on a wire coming down, he was terrified, but killed the spider with his book. It turned out to be a poisonous spider. The poison in the soup was similar to the poison of the spider. It was assumed that the spider was sitting at the ceiling above the pot of soup and dropped some poison in the soup because of the hot steam, with the known effects. The judge ruled that the maid was put wrongly imprisoned and she was released.
The real story is...
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