Powder House

The powder house on Bastion IV was demolished around 1800 for the construction of the dry dock, so that today only the building on Bastion V remains. Both buildings naturally served as storage for the gunpowder. During the winter months, dozens of warships were safely stored in the harbor, rigged and stripped of a large part of the equipment. The gunpowder was stored in the powder houses for so long. The large warships often took an enormous amount of ammunition with them, so that the powder houses were packed with gunpowder during the winter season.

In the winter of 1737-1738, for example, an impressive 16,000 lb (7250 kg.) of gunpowder was stored in the powder house on Bastion V alone. Of course, this led to risky situations. During that particular winter, a fire broke out one day in one of the barracks, which fortunately could be extinguished in time with the help of a fire hose that was quickly brought to the scene. The officers became aware of the dangerous situation because of the barely averted disaster. Such a fire could have caused a lot of damage to the barracks and warehouses at the shipyard. But the big nightmare was the possibility that the fire would spread to the nearby powder house. An explosion would have caused unimaginable damage to the war fleet, so it was hastily decided to move some of the gunpowder elsewhere.

Source: decruyttoren.nl

The powder house is now in use by the art artist of Joanna Julia Smolarz