Monument sights in Amsterdam
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A
Sarphatipark
This diverse little park was named after Samuel Sarphati (1813–66), a Jewish doctor, businessman and urban innovator. The grounds are a mix of ponds, gently rolling meadows and wooded fringes. In the centre you’ll see the Sarphati memorial (1886), a bombastic temple with a fountain, gargoyles and a bust of the great man himself. Water is pumped to the fountain via an underground pipe from a canal hundreds of metres away. Sarphati’s diverse projects (waste- disposal service, slaughterhouse, factory for cheap bread, trades schools, the Amstel Hotel and a mortgage bank) exasperated the dour city council, though many of these ventures survive to this day.
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B
Dam Square & Nationaal Monument
This pigeon-filled expanse was the site of the original dam built across the Amstel. Now it’s busker central, with the occasional puppet show during summer and a Ferris wheel in the spring. The obelisk on the east side is the Nationaal Monument, built in 1956 to honour the fallen of WWII.
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C
Homomonument
The pink granite triangles of the Homomonument, at Westermarkt commemorates gays and lesbians who were persecuted by the Nazis; citizens lay out flowers on Liberation Day (4 May).
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