ARTIS has restored two national monuments and made them future-proof.
The Pigeon House and the Mouflon Stable have been given a new function and are now open to the public! Incidentally, this May holiday you can also go up to the Kerbert Terrace yourself for the last time, and feel a little bit like a lion. This part of ARTIS is also being renovated, and made suitable for smaller animal species: the red ruffed lemurs together with another species of lemur, the ring-tailed lemur, and the Madagascar radiated tortoise.
The Pigeon House, which dates back to around 1730 and is therefore almost 300 years old, has been transformed into a catering establishment. This house was part of the green Plantage neighbourhood, where people often went for walks. The Pigeon House has had various functions since ARTIS was founded in 1838. It was used to fly ornamental and carrier pigeons, it was an incubator house where ARTIS visitors could see birds hatching from eggs and it served as a stable for flightless birds. There was even a polar bear in an extension. On a 19th-century map, the Pigeon House is indicated as a ‘polar bear cage’. And from 1928 to 1943, the public saw ARTIS’s first manatee there.
The Mouflon stable has been given a function as a playground for young visitors. It dates back to 1876 and is one of the oldest animal enclosures in the park. At that time, ARTIS wanted to show as many different animal species as possible. The mouflon stable has a classic layout with the stable in the middle and around it as ‘pie slices’ accommodations for various goat and sheep species, including the mouflon as the main resident. But the stable was rejected. It turned out not to be a suitable workplace according to the current ARBO legislation; you cannot stand upright in it as an animal caretaker.
By setting up the Duivenhuis as an innovative catering facility and turning the mouflon stable into a playground, not only is heritage preserved, but it stays alive.
ARTIS, Plantage Kerklaan 38-40.