Architectural, Cultural sights in Amsterdam
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Anne Frank Huis
The Anne Frank Huis is the Western Canal Belt’s ubersight, drawing almost a million visitors annually. With its reconstruction of Anne’s melancholy bedroom and her actual diary – sitting alone in its glass case, filled with sunnily optimistic writing tempered by quiet despair – it’s a powerful experience. The focus of the museum is the achterhuis (rear house), also known as the secret annexe, a dark and airless space where the Franks and others observed complete silence during the daytimes, outgrew their clothes, pasted photos of Hollywood stars on the walls and read Dickens, before being mysteriously betrayed and sent to their deaths. The house stays open later…
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Museum het Rembrandthuis
You almost expect to find the master himself at the Museum het Rembrandthuis, where Rembrandt van Rijn ran the Netherlands’ largest painting studio, only to lose the lot when profligacy set in, enemies swooped and bankruptcy came a-knocking. The museum has almost every etching he made (around 250) and holds etching demonstrations several times daily. Expect to see between 20 and 100 etchings on display, depending on the exhibit. There’s also a mind-boggling collection of Rembrandt’s possessions: seashells, weaponry, Roman busts and military helmets. Ask for the free audio guide at the entrance. You can buy advance tickets online, though it’s not as vital here as at some o…
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Golden Bend
The Golden Bend is about the most prestigious stretch of real estate in Amsterdam, a monument to the Golden Age, when precious goods swelled in cellars of homes already stuffed with valuables. The earliest mansions date from the 1660s, when the Canal Belt was expanded south. Thanks to some lobbying at city hall, the gables here were twice as wide as the standard Amsterdam model, and the rear gardens were deeper. The richest Amsterdammers lived, loved and ruled their affairs from here. Apart from the museum Kattenkabinet, the homes are opened to the public only on Open Monument Day (Open Monumentendag).
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Museum Willet-Holthuysen
This sumptuous residence, now part of the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, is named after the widow who bequeathed the property to the city in the late 19th century. Highlights include paintings by Jacob de Wit, the place de milieu (centrepiece) that was part of the family’s 275-piece Meissen table service, and the intimate French-style garden with sundial – you can also peek at the garden through the iron fence at the Amstelstraat end. Be sure to borrow the notebook from the front desk, with details that make the house come alive (how meat was roasted and windows were cleaned).
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Frankendael
As early as the 18th century, wealthy Amsterdammers would spend their summers in plush country retreats south of Plantage on a tract of drained land called Watergraafsmeer. The last survivor of this era is Frankendael, an elegant Louis XIV-style mansion that sparkles from its recent restoration. The house backs onto a formal garden that’s open to the public, but be sure to view the forecourt with its gushing fountain and statues of Bacchus and Ceres. The property is swathed in a larger landscape garden with walking paths, decorative bridges and the remains of follies.
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Multatuli Museum
Better known by the pen name Multatuli – Latin for ‘I have suffered greatly’ – novelist Eduard Douwes Dekker was best known for Max Havelaar (1860), about corrupt colonialists in the Dutch East Indies. Dekker himself worked in colonial administration in Batavia (now Jakarta), and the book made him something of a social conscience for the Netherlands. This small but fascinating museum-home chronicles his life and works, and shows furniture and artefacts from his period in Indonesia.
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Gijsbert Dommer Huis
Look closely, ladies and gentlemen, at the facade of this sober residence known locally as the ‘House with the Blood Stains’. As he lost his marbles, six-time mayor and diplomat Coenraad van Beuningen scribbled graffiti here in his own blood, and his unfathomable message – including Hebrew letters and obscure cabal symbols – from the 17th century is still faintly visible. Well-to-do businessman Gijsbert Dommer commissioned this house from 1671, but the mad mayor is better known today.
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Van Brienenhofje
This charming courtyard was named in the late 18th century for Jan van Brienen, who bought the Star Brewery located here, one of 13 breweries in town at the time. (The place is still called De Star hofje by many.) It was turned into an almshouse for older residents, and although not dirt poor they had a clear division of labour: the women cleaned house for the single men, who in turn toted water buckets from the outside pump (topped by a curious lantern). There’s also a manicured garden.
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Het Schip
This remarkable housing project (1920) is a flagship of the Amsterdam School of architecture. The triangular block, loosely resembling a ship, was designed by Michel de Klerk for railway employees. Het Schip now hosts a small museum in three parts: you can poke around the delightful old post office, walk through a worker’s apartment (complete with period furniture) and enjoy a snack in the lunchroom. Architecture buffs will want to make the pilgrimage.
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Hollandsche Schouwburg
The Hollandsche Schouwburg played a tragic role during WWII. After 1942 the theatre became a detention centre for Jews awaiting deportation. Up to 80,000 people passed through here on their way to the death camps. Little more than the facade is left standing today, and there is a memorial room and an exhibition room with videos and documents on the building’s history.
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Museum Van Loon
Museum Van Loon is an opulent 1672 residence that was first home to painter Ferdinand Bol and later to the wealthy Van Loon family. The house recalls canal-side living in Amsterdam when money was no object. Inside there are important paintings such as Wedding Portrait by Jan Miense Molenaer and a collection of some 150 portraits of the Van Loons.
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Trippenhuis
Making their fortune in arms dealing, the Trip brothers commissioned a young Dutch architect, Justus Vingboons, to build the Trippenhuis in 1660. It’s a greystone mansion with eight Corinthian columns across two houses, one for each brother. In a nod to their ignoble profession, the chimneys are shaped like mortars. It’s closed to the public.
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Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis
Though not quite as impressive as Museum Van Loon or Museum Willet-Holthuysen, this 17th-century house is more serene, and definitely worth a look. Docents are on hand to show you the rooms. Chamber music concerts using the estate’s vintage instruments take place on Sundays.
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