Stadsbierhuys De Waag, Doesburg

The claim

In the little Hanseatic town of Doesburg, the late-Gothic weigh house of 1478 still has its great merchant's scales hanging inside, but for centuries it has also poured beer. Now a 'city beer house', it serves its own Hanze blond and wheat beers at scrubbed tables under a lofty timber roof, and holds a Guinness claim as Holland's oldest hospitality business.

What the records show

The weigh house came into use in 1478, and the city let it with the monopoly on selling foreign beer in Doesburg, so weighing and tapping ran together from the start: Erfgoed Gelderland, the Dutch Wikipedia entry, the town's own heritage pages and the Stichting Erfgoed Nederlandse Biercultuur database all describe it as the stadsbierhuis from its opening, with city workers taking part of their wages here in beer. The lease itself has not been published online. The Guinness recognition is a distinction, not evidence, and 't Goude Hooft in The Hague claims 1423.

Dated evidence for Stadsbierhuys De Waag, earliest first
Year	What	Source
1478	Claimed founding	The pub
c.1478	Present building	Building fabric
1478	First record of a drinking house here	Rijksmonumentenregister

What to look for inside

Original weighing scales still hanging inside
Guinness-listed oldest operating horeca business in the Netherlands
House beers Oerblond and Oerweizen brewed since 2020
Hanseatic town setting

Visiting

Stadsbierhuys De Waag is in Doesburg, Netherlands, at Koepoortstraat 2, Doesburg. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

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