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A Photo Tour of Amsterdam
Historic Buildings, Houses, Canals, and Street Scenes
– Introduction –
About Amsterdam ...
Amsterdam, the "Venice of the North", is located on the Amstel river (from which
it derived its original name, "Amstelredam" – "the dam on the
Amstel") and consists of some 90 islands created by a host of concentric and radial
canals with a combined length of some 68 miles, and connected to each other by about 200 bridges. Of the 20,000,
or so, structures within the core city (click here for
a map),
some 6,990 (most of them built between AD1350 and 1850) are currently protected under various federal and municipal
regulations passed since February 1990. Those same 6,990 structures would, if laid along both sides of an
avenue, create an 18 mile long thoroughfare of unbelievable majesty and beauty!
Unlike most capitals, Amsterdam is not a city of palaces and grandiose public buildings; it is a city
characterized by single family houses which make up 90%+ of its structural inventory. Even the, so called,
Royal Palace started its life in 1665 as a City Hall (Stadthuis). It only became the "Royal Palace"
in 1808 (during the French occupation of Holland) by decree of "King" Lodewijk Napoleon (Napoleon Bonaparte's
youngest brother). Amsterdam is an unpretentious, highly livable city of and for "the people",
not for royalty. For instance, right behind and literally within spitting distance, so to speak, of the
Royal Palace, you'll find a down to earth, prosaic,
Albert Heijn
grocery store (owned by AHold, the Dutch corporate giant which owns the BI-LO, Bruno's, Giant, Peapod, Stop&Shop, and Tops chains
in the US and Canada) on the first floor of the PTT (Post-Telegraaf-Telegram) building!
Unlike the Royal Palace in The Hague or Buckingham Palace in London which
have been surrounded by fences and gates since time immemorial, you are
quite welcome to sit on the (long) stoop leading to the formal entrances
to the palace to enjoy a coke and a sandwich bought from a nearby street
vendor.
Also, and most importantly, it is not a city that grew, shall we say, "organically" but one which was created as
a carefully "planned community" right from its birth in the early 13th century!
In a very real sense, living in Amsterdam is like living in a museum filled to the brim with architectural and other
artifacts of immense historical value and beauty. Despite its antique appearance, however, you'll find Amsterdam
to be an extremely up-to-date, sophisticated, and cosmopolitan city filled with people a majority of which are friendly, helpful, and
multi-lingual; i.e. fully capable of understanding and speaking English as well as German and/or
French! (In the Netherlands, English, French, German, and "Hollands" are an obligatory part of the standard -5 year-
high school curriculum! Also, since Holland is closely surrounded by English, French, and German speaking nations, a mere
twitch on the dial of any AM/FM radio is likely to produce a cheery voice announcing: "This is the BBC Home Service and
here is the news" -or- "Ici, ici, Radio Paris" -or- "Hier ist
die Deutsche Radio Nachrichtendienst"
-or-, of course, "Hier is de AVRO met het laatste nieuws van de wereld".)
About the tour ...
On the following pages you will be treated to a slide-show presentation containing some 225 screen-sized yet quick loading
images of the interiors and exteriors of many houses and public buildings, and of canal and street scenes.
(Btw, we haven't counted them yet, but we believe that at a monitor
display setting of 1024x768 pixels, at least 60 of the 224 pics are "wallpaper" sized.
At a setting of 800x600, most all of them are!)
They were culled (not pirated) from a huge and incredibly content-rich (Dutch language) website of the Amsterdam "Bureau
Of Monument Care" (BMZ - "Bureau Voor Monumenten Zorg"), a municipal government agency which -as its name
implies- oversees the maintenance and care of most all of those structures and has done so since its inception in 1953.
While the Dutch language site is for all practical purposes finished, the English version, which has been, ahem, "under
construction" now for on and off seven (7) long years, is still far from done. Thus far it has only a
small amount of text and no more than 36, or so, images of some 28 historic houses, 2 public buildings ("de Waag" and the Royal
Palace), and a half dozen canal scenes. In all, less than ½% of what the Dutch site has to offer!
To see for yourself, go to their main site at http://www.bmz.amsterdam.nl/adam/index.html
and then to the Enlish site by clicking on the British flag icon. We suggest you start with the English version and
return to the Dutch one only after you have familiarized yourself somewhat with the territory.
If you would like to offer some comments and observations regarding the English
version of the site, send an e-mail to Dr. Walther Schoonenberg, the site's "creator". Here is his
email address; W.Schoonenberg@webzin.nl
We created this tour for several reasons:
One – Because we want to bring the beauty of Historic
Amsterdam to the world's
±800 million English speakers who don't understand a word of Dutch, and, thus, are unable fully to enjoy the main BMA site!
Two – Because we want to give our visitors (you) an opportunity to appreciate what we are missing in our
21st Century environments where it comes to the interior and
exterior beauty of our "modern" homes and office buildings. For instance, the picture on the
left shows an example of a conference room belonging to the "Nederlandse Handels Maatschappij", a multi-billion
dollar, Dutch corporate giant engaged in international trade.
Look at those wall paintings, the woodwork and the ceiling!
The one on the right is an example of a marvelous garden right behind 672 Keizersgracht.
Three – because the fact that ALL of the interiors shown are part of residences and office buildings that are still in
full use today despite being anywhere from 75 to well over 300 years old, demonstrates how readily their style can be adapted
to and fully integrated with the tastes and needs of the 21st Century.
OKAY FOLKS ...
Here is the E-bus that'll take you on ...
the 1st leg of this tour
Here is the one for
the 2nd leg of this tour
or, if you prefer ...
Over there is one that'll take you on a free
Tour of the Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks
That last E-bus over there will take you back to our
Home Page
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Custom Designers of Sensible Homes Embraced by Livable Gardens