Once Hidden Now In “Plain View”…

A Hidden Church or as we in the Netherlands call them, een schuilkerk (Dutch – house church; plural – schuilkerken) is a kind of church that is not recognisable as a church from the outside of the building. They were built in large numbers during the time of the Dutch Republic for use by Roman Catholics, [...]

Place of Silence in a Noisy City #3

The Miracle of Amsterdam
A few days before Palm Sunday on March 15, 1345 a man in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam received the Sacred Host when a priest administered the Sacrament of the Sick to him. In his sickness he vomited, expelling the Host which was caught in a basin and thrown on to the fire, [...]

Place of Silence in a Noisy City #2

Begijnhof
Until 1578 Amsterdam was almost completely Roman Catholic, with two large parish churches, six chapels and many monasteries and convents. Every year the worship of the Sacrament of the Miracle [see tomorrow] drew thousands of pilgrims to the city. A fair grew up alongside, ensuring a flourishing economy.
In Amsterdam the Protestant reformers were particularly opposed [...]

Place of Silence in a Noisy City #1

Begijnhof
In about 1150, a group of women came together to live in a religious community, primarily to look after the sick. These were, in effect, the first ‘Beguines’ although the name was not yet used. The women were not nuns and nor did they live in the seclusion of a convent. They had no founders [...]

Narrowest…

A photo on another site triggered this post.
The narrowest facade in the world is number 7 on the Singel. The cottage is one meter wide and is barely wider than the front-door. The people who live there must be very slim… It’s more honest to say that this area is the rear of a house, [...]

Dutch and the City

From Harlem to Brooklyn and Broadway to Amsterdam Avenue, the Dutch influence on New York City life is all around you. The Dutch and the City not only share a history; today groundbreaking Dutch designers, fashionable artists and innovative architects continue to inspire many New Yorkers. As you walk around the city, you’ll find Dutch [...]

Art in the valley…

I just finished the day with a delicious dinner, more about that later. Today was a day of culture and art, we came down from the mountain to the valley, in this case Ashville [NC]. At Pack Place Arts & Education Center we visited the Ashville Art Museum, in the same building there’s a Health [...]

Then & Now

Corner of Damrak and Prins Hendrikkade around 1880

The Victoria Hotel was build in 1889, the owners of Prins Hendrikkade 46 + 47 did not sell their buildings because of the low price offered. As a result they are now still standing and the hotel was build around it.
Source: Archives City of Amsterdam

Museum of the Month – November

When I drove off from home, it was more like an endurence test for the scooter to see how far I could drive. Until Friday I could reach Buiksloterdijk with its Captains houses, but couldn’t drive back.
This time however I could drive all the way along the North-Holland waterway [5km] to the ferry, across the [...]

Cathedral of Culture…

Pierre Cuypers [1827-1921]
The architect P.J.H. (Pierre) Cuypers: famed and maligned. He enriched the Dutch landscape with dozens of churches, designed “Centraal Station” and the “Rijksmuseum” in Amsterdam, and restored a considerable number of buildings, among them the medieval castle “Kasteel de Haar” near Utrecht. His architecture and views remain controversial, because he took a standpoint [...]

My Home is My Castle…

In a way this is not my home, but it could be. Near Den Bosch or as it’s still called ’s Hertogenbosch [Dukes Forest] a new project is being build. 8 modern ‘castles’ rise out of the surrounding countryside, most have below ground parking so nature is all around you. The apartments sell like hot cakes, [...]

Amsterdam Great Architects #4

Daniël Stalpaert [1615-1676]
Daniël Stalpaert was appointed city architect in 1648. It was part of his job to complete the Town Hall in the Dam Square, which had been designed by Jacob van Campen. Stalpaert also played a major role in the 1663 urban expansion plan. He designed the city gates in an austere style. Other [...]

Amsterdam Great Architects #1

Hendrick de Keyser (1565-1621)
As a young man the Utrecht-born artist Hendrick de Keyser was apprenticed to master Cornelis Bloemaert. At the age of 26 he followed Bloemaert to Amsterdam. Soon he set to work as an independent artist. When his talent became generally appreciated he was appointed city stone mason and sculptor. In fact his [...]

Inside a canal house

The characteristic lay-out of the most common type of Amsterdam canal house, developed in the course of the 18th century. The typical canal house, as we have come to know it, consists of a voorhuis, the front rooms, closest to the canal, and an achterhuis, the rooms at the back of the building facing the [...]

Building a house…

Building a canal house…
Amsterdam is the greatest pre-industrial monument of the world. The almost 7000 monuments are build by craftsmen like carpenters, bricklayers and stonecutters. An architect was usually not necessary. Amsterdam architects from the 1700’s will have their own post on a later date.
The building process is divided in the following steps:

The foundation
The brickwork
The [...]

Amsterdam Sights…

A sightseeing tour by bicycle or foot
Monumental mansions of Amsterdam
Starting point: Stationsplein, in front of the Noord-Zuid Hollands Koffiehuis (A on map) finishing point: Hotel The Grand, Oudezijds Voorburgwal (B on map) duration of the cycle trip: approx 2 hours by foot 3½ hours. Click on the map for a larger version.
Introduction
Amsterdam’s inner city is [...]

And the winner is…

It started in the 13th Century as a Monastery church of the Dominican Order in Maastricht. When the French entered the city in 1795 it stopped being a church and had several other functions, one of them a bicycle shed.
Now it is mostly restored and a bookstore and espresso bar opened its doors in this [...]

Tuschinski Theater

The Amsterdam Tuschinski Theater is considered one of the most beautiful cinemas in the world. Visitors are very impressed with the thousands of electrical lamps, the marble, the stunning stained glass windows and the exotic objects d’art. The theater opened its doors in 1921 and is a mix of Art Deco and Amsterdam School styles.

Visitors [...]

Amsterdam School

This subject was triggered by reading an article in my local daily newspaper, it is called “De mooiste straat” or for those of you who are still not speaking fluently Dutch [I think that is 99.9% of you] “the nicest street”.
I started downloading it last night but forgot to save the text and the pictures [...]

‘Homo sapiens non urinat in ventum’

A free translation reads: “A wise man should not pee against the wind”
That is what is written on an architrave in the center of Amsterdam. Since most people do not speak Latin, not even the building commission, it was accepted to put on a new building in 1991. It was mend as a pun with a big [...]