The old town hall on Dam square was a complex of buildings. The one on the right was the main building. To the left of it, you can see the open colonnade of the law court where sentences were pronounced in public. A piece of whalebone, possibly a symbol of justice, is hanging on the wall of the court. On the fencing are the four statues of counts and countesses now exhibited in this room. The building on the left of the former St Elizabeth's Hospice. The painting shows the town hall in a dilapidated condition. Van der Ulft copied the Old Town Hall from a painting by Pieter Saenredam (1597-1665), in the Rijksmuseum. In the present version the foreground is more spacious and van der Ulft payed more attention to the surroundings. The town hall no longer existed then, having been destroyed by fire in 1652. He also copied the incorrect date of the fire from Saenredam, which was written on the canopy of the town hall: '1651', a year too early.