In the Golden Lion

The golden lion, which in the course of time had become a bit dull in colour and bald, has been completely covered in gold leaf again, making it a shining centre piece of the wall of houses here at the Markt Square.

Higher up in the facade are the year stones 16 63. However, these belong to the house and not to the gablestone, because that is from Spilstraat 9, where it once read ANNO 1802.
The image on the keystone is described as: 'lion with mortar'. That is a mortar and indicates the (former) presence of a pharmacy. And that is correct, because in the beginning of the 19th century pharmacy Haenenberg was established at Spilstraat 9.

Fragments from the past.

On 9 December 1834 a deed was executed before the Maastricht notary C.A.R. De Flize, in which Pieter Gillis Claessens (1768-1843), brewer and roaster, for a purchase price of 5,040 guilders acquired the ownership of the 'Court of Spain', as this house with rear quarter, stables and other appurtenances was called. At that time the house number was 1626 (from 1850 it would be house number 1109 and since 1888 it is house number 65). After his daughter Maria Ida Hubertina Claessens married from this house with Joannes Henricus Hubertus Timmermans, she would continue to live in this house, together with husband and children. Later (1860) the Timmermans-Claessens family would move to the current number 68. Maria Ida Hubertina Claessens' parents, Pieter Gillis Claessens and Maria Catharina Vroenen, would move to their previous home at the Blekerij in Sint Pieter, where Maria Ida Hubertina Claessens had been born in 1819. There Pieter Gillis Claessens lived until he died in 1843.