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Singelgracht at Night
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" ("Amstel-river-dam") −
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" Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (Emperor Charles Louis Napoléon 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 very 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 tri-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 "Nederland" (about the size of the state of Maryland) 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 Nachrichtendienst (news bureau) der WestDeutscher
Rundfunk ins Köln" (Cologne) -or-, of course, "Hier is de AVRO
(de Algemeen Vereenigde Radio Omroep -) met het laatste nieuws van de dag".
About the tour ...
On the following pages you will be treated to a slide-show presentation containing some 225 screen-sized yet quick loading
pictures 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 "under construction" now for
more than seven years, is still far from done. Thus far it has only a small amount of text and no more than
36, or so, pictures of some 28 historic houses, 2 public buildings ("de Waag" and the Royal Palace), and a half dozen
canal scenes. In all, less than 0.5% 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.
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 BMZ site!
Two – Because we want to give our visitors (you) an
opportunity to appreciate what we are missing in our 21st Century
urban environments where it comes to the interior and
exterior beauty of our "modern" homes and office buildings. For instance, the picture
on the left below 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 we go ...
Click on the picture below and you'll find yourself
on our sequential tour with all of its 224 picture, informative text
and interesting links.
An Amsterdam cheese store
...
Ahh, no wonder a Dutchman is often called a "Kaaskop"
(Cheesehead)!
If you want to take a look at all of the big thumbnail pictures first ...
go to the...
1st Leg of the Tour
-and then to the-
2nd Leg of the Tour
Enjoy!...
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