The Amsterdam City Archive is housed in the ‘De Bazel Building’, named after its architect Karel de Bazel. The building was erected between 1919 and 1926 and commissioned by the Nederlandse Handel-Maatschappij, which dominated commerce within the Dutch colonies in the Netherlands East-Indies. This book discusses the truly unique design of the building, based on Masonic and theosophical principles, to which the architect strictly adhered. Starting point of the design is the Buddhist temple Borobudur on Java. From a ‘temple of commerce’ at the peak of Dutch economic expansion, the building has been transformed to a ‘temple of culture and historical conscience’ of the city of Amsterdam.