Bear

The present bear in Jodenstraat originates from the former logement 'DE BEER' in Rechtstraat next to number 25, which was demolished when the 'de Percee' was broken through. For many years the gable stone was stored in the depository of the Historical Museum before it was given a place in Jodenstraat 1 in 1925, clearly taking into account the name of the brewery IN DEN BEER located there earlier and the image of another bear that originally hung there, which had disappeared at that time.

So there are several bears, but the chronogram stone is always the same.
The story that is still circulating says that the time verse - which indicates that the building was rebuilt under the protection of Christ in 1833 - was placed after the building had previously collapsed. This must have happened when brewer Rutten - and this was Nicolaas Rutten, nicknamed het Waterkläöske -, with a foresight regarding the blockade during the Belgian uprising, had stuffed the attics of Jodenstraat 1 with grain to such an extent that the floors gave way. Grain and housewife ended up in the cellar, so the story goes. She is said to have survived, but not the house. Still, the reality was different.
In the chronicles of Van Gulpen and Flament a different, but more correct and dramatic version is given.
A collapse had indeed occurred, but not at Jodenstraat 1, but at the adjoining Maastrichter Brugstraat 14, and it is therefore doubtful whether the 1833 chronogram at Jodenstraat refers to the 1822 event. It is a fact, however, that Jodenstraat 1 was the rear house/rear entrance of Maastrichter Brugstraat 14, so there was a connection.