Amsterdam, then & now

amsterdam, then & now

amsterdam, then & now

City built on trade and tolerance:

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What defines Amsterdam.

7 A Golden Age:

A bit of 17th century history and it’s heritage.

8 The epicentre of European counterculture:

The liberal legacy.

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Two wheels good:

The bikes and their owners.

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Neighbourhood watch:

Centre, Oost, West, Zuid, Noord.

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Living the dream:

To live and work here.

16 An evergreen cultural life:

The cultural life in 10 icons.

20 Get out of town:

Haarlem & beaches, Old Holland, flowers, castles.

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amsterdam, then & now

Stately 17th-century houses sit seamlessly beside cutting-edge contemporary architecture, in a compact capital with more bikes than people, more nationalities than New York, more canals than Venice and more worldclass museums than pretty much anywhere.

Welcome to Amsterdam. text: Toby Main

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amsterdam, then & now

A city built on trade and tolerance: What defines Amsterdam.

Wherever you are in Amsterdam, look around and try to imagine the scene a thousand years ago. What would there be in place of the meticulously lain cobbles and postcard-perfect bridges? Chances are, there would be little more than a boggy wasteland. One of the city’s many famous landmarks would be recognisable, however: namely, the Amstel River.

Nothing much of note happened here until around the 12th century, when intrepid people from the North came floating down the river in hollowed-out logs. The ground being too soggy to build on, they dug a structure of dykes and ditches – the very first of which is commemorated by Dam square. These enterprising ‘Aemstelledammers’, as they became known, began levying toll money from passing beer and herring traders, and quickly became expert boat builders themselves, attracting yet more attention to the emerging town.

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In 1275, Count Floris of Holland formalised these activities by granting special toll privileges to the merchant town, and in 1300 Amsterdam got its first charter.

It was also around this time that the first church – the core of today’s Oude Kerk – was consecrated.

As the historian Fred Feddes notes in the introduction to his book A Millennium of Amsterdam, the Amstel was never going to be a body of water to rival the Thames or the Danube. It wasn’t even the most impressive waterway in this land, and yet the rights and privileges awarded to the city of Amsterdam ensured that it would become by far the most important. The spirit of commerce has always played a crucial role in shaping Amsterdam, which is a city built on trade like no other. What’s more, the importance of trade ensured a certain degree of religious freedom, nurturing the pragmatic tolerance for which Amsterdam is still famed. By accepting differences where other societies tried to quash them, Amsterdam turned diversity to its advantage, fuelling an economic miracle that would make it the envy of Europe.

‘This backwater town […] remains the world’s laboratory of liberalism’ – London’s Financial Times, October 2013

Dutch East India Company (VOC) – the first multinational in the world

amsterdam, then & now

A Golden Age: A bit of 17th century history and it’s heritage.

The whole of what’s now known as ‘the Netherlands’ used to be part of the Spanish empire, but in 1581 the northernmost Dutch provinces declared independence, mainly out of a desire to practice Protestantism, which was strictly forbidden by the Catholic Spanish. It was at this point that religious tolerance was enshrined in the constitution of the new Dutch Republic, and its capital soon became known as a refuge for Protestants and also Jews, who were being persecuted or oppressed in many parts of the world.

Many of these incomers were successful merchants, and the wealth and expertise that they brought with them benefitted the Republic materially. Spanish Jews moved their goods and operations here and maintained foreign trading relationships with, among other places, Morocco and the Levant. New trade missions to India proved a huge commercial success, and in 1602 the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) was founded. The city of Amsterdam had a majority share in the organisation, which was to become the first multinational company in the world, financed by the sale of shares that in turn established the world’s first modern stock exchange. The company acquired the Dutch monopoly on Asian trade, and the Dutch provinces became the most important financial centre of Northern Europe.

During this period, the city of Amsterdam underwent two massive urban expansions, and for the first time both functionality and aesthetics were taken into consideration

during the planning stages. The results were the now-famous Canal Belt – prime real estate whose grand houses were status symbols for the very wealthiest merchants – and the Jordaan district, with its modest dwellings for an expanding working class.

Rich Amsterdammers soon began to demonstrate concern for the less fortunate and established institutions to care for the poor, the sick and the orphaned.

Of course, the sign that you’d really ‘made it’ as a 17th-century merchant was a fabulous painting or two, and the art market flourished during this time. Lavish still life paintings such as those hanging in the Rijksmuseum (www.rijksmuseum.nl) evoked the rich abundance of life during the Golden Age, depicting a diverse array of exotic fruits, flowers and game – much of it straight off the VOC boats. Sculptures were commissioned all over town for government buildings, private dwellings (often adorning house facades) and the exteriors of churches. Within just 30 years, Amsterdam became a thriving cultural centre, leaving a legacy of respected painters including Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen and, of course, Rembrandt van Rijn.

Science and philosophy also benefitted from Amsterdam’s climate of tolerance.

Books concerning topics that might have been deemed too controversial elsewhere were printed here and covertly exported abroad. Amsterdam was at once Europe’s importer of treasures and its factory of ideas.

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amsterdam, then & now

The epicentre of European counterculture: The liberal legacy.

In its ‘Amsterdam DNA’ exhibit, the Amsterdam Museum (www.amsterdammuseum.nl) lists the city’s defining ingredients as follows: enterprise, free thinking, creativity and citizenship. These characteristics found their heyday during the Golden Age, of course, but they saw a resurgence under very different circumstances in the 1960s, when a host of disparate countercultural movements earned Amsterdam a reputation as the cradle of youthful revolt and a new nickname: the magisch centrum (magic centre) of Europe.

Foremost amongst these movements were the Provos. So-called because their aim was to provoke a violent or heavy-handed response from the police through non-violent means, the Provos saw themselves as shattering the self-righteousness of those in power. Their ‘happenings’ – focused in Amsterdam around Het Lieverdje, the famous statue of a street urchin on the square at Spui – were a bizarre mixture of absurdity and activism. Provos mocked the establishment’s ignorance regarding of marijuana, for example, by smoking tea-filled ‘joints’ in the hopes of getting wrongfully arrested.

The Provos’ political wing gained a seat on Amsterdam’s city council and, under the umbrella term ‘White Plans’, set about making the city a nicer place to live.

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The most famous of these proposals was the White Bicycle Plan, which advocated closing Amsterdam to all motor vehicles and replacing them with electric taxis and a fleet of publicly owned, free-to-use bicycles. Rejected at the time as unworkable, the plan proved to be simply ahead of its time, and has since been a source of inspiration for bike-sharing schemes worldwide.

Officially, the Provo movement ended in 1967 but its legacy has been profound and long lasting. Various Provo policies lived way beyond the movement’s short lifespan – including the squatting of empty buildings, which flourished all over Amsterdam until 2010, when it was outlawed.

By the end of the 1960s, the Amsterdam authorities had begun to tolerate prostitution, and the red lights of the sex trade, reflected in the waters of some of the oldest stretches of canals in the city, had become something of a tourist attraction.

In 1973, a first ‘coffeeshop’ appeared on the Vijzelgracht (Mellow Yellow), buying and selling cannabis within the legally tolerated limits. According to historian Russell Shorto, the decades from the 1950s through the 1990s can be regarded as a new golden age, when the city threw off the remaining influences of the Church and other conservative structures and transformed itself into the 20th-century version of a liberal capital or, as Shorto puts it: ‘a laboratory for new ideas, from gay rights to gay marriage, from free love to free bicycles’.

‘a laboratory for new ideas, from gay rights to gay marriage, from free love to free bicycles’

Today, there are some 400 kilometres of designated bicycle paths crisscrossing the city

amsterdam, then & now

Two wheels good: The bikes and their owners.

In case anyone hadn’t noticed, in Amsterdam the humble bike is the default mode of transport for the butcher, the stockbroker and even the supermodel. Ridden by royalty and riffraff alike, the bicycle is Amsterdam’s great social leveller, with more than 50 per cent of all inner-city journeys happening on two wheels. You may be able to glance at an Amsterdammer’s clothes, their postcode or their curtains and make a judgement about their social status or heritage. But their bike? That’s another story. As a general rule, one person’s bike will look much like the next bike – that is, pretty scruffy.

It’s a widely quoted fact that there are more bikes in Amsterdam than there are people. Consequently, a typical Amsterdam street scene comprises countless cyclists either heading to or from work, transporting young children to school in massive barrow-like carts (bakfiets) and carrying everything from groceries to bulky furniture with the greatest of ease. It can seem to outsiders like cycling is somehow built into the Dutch DNA. In reality, though, it’s a hard-won combination of urban planning and people power.

The popularity of cycling in Amsterdam is undoubtedly aided by the fact that Amsterdam is flat, compact and densely populated. But the investment in cycling infrastructure only began in earnest in the 1970s following a post-war car boom that had led to unacceptably high death rates for cyclists.

Today, there are some 400 kilometres of designated bicycle paths crisscrossing the city. You can even bike straight through the Rijksmuseum, should you feel like it.

A 2011 study of commuter happiness by the Portland State University found that those who travel by bike are simply happier than people who drive or take public transport – which goes some way to explain why Amsterdam has a permanent smile on its face.

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amsterdam, then & now

Neighbourhood watch: Centre, Oost, West, Zuid, Noord.

Cycling’s popularity is greatly helped, of course, by the fact that there’s so much to look at beyond the handlebars. Pick up a postcard in Amsterdam and chances are it’ll depict the magnificent Canal Ring or the ancient backstreets of the Red Light District. And yet there’s so much more besides, and those who venture beyond the city centre are amply rewarded.

Take Oost (East), for example. Conceived in the 19th century to combine all the advantages of country life with the modern conveniences of the city, Amsterdam’s east end is strikingly green and spacious, and contains the city’s 19th-century zoo and botanical gardens.

At the other end of town, the neighbourhood now known as the Oud-West was once the zone designated for ‘flammable industry’. Noisy sawmills flourished here amid the marshes, until the area was earmarked for a more pressing purpose in the late 19th century: housing Amsterdam’s booming labour force. Simple, four-floor terraced houses with steep staircases were thrown up in order to accommodate the maximum number of workers.

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The vast majority of the neighbourhood’s first inhabitants were working class, and so the buildings of the Oud-West (Old West) are mostly split into apartments and have few of the ostentatious flourishes that characterise the grand homes of the Canal Belt.

Although it emerged from the same marshland, the fragrant Zuid (South) on the other, pricier, side of Amsterdam’s most famous green space, the Vondelpark, has always been a much more extravagant affair. Here, impressive manor houses and high-end boutiques abound. Officially, the trendy De Pijp is also part of Amsterdam Zuid district. De Pijp (literally, ‘the pipe’) used to be nicknamed the Latin Quarter because it was home to so many poor artists and scruffy students, but it’s smartened up its act significantly over the past decade, and now young families rub shoulders with students and bohemian types.

Perhaps the city’s most exciting reinvention, though, is happening right now, north of the IJ (that body of water behind Central Station). Once considered a blustery and undesirable place to live, Amsterdam-Noord has become a destination for youth brands such as MTV since heavy industry largely vacated the area. A smorgasbord of hip new restaurants, bars, hotels and shops have followed suit, many sitting pretty on the IJ-facing waterfront.

There’s so much more to Amsterdam besides the magniďŹ cent Canal Ring or backstreets of the Red Light District

There were some 180 different nationalities co-existing peacefully and happily here in Amsterdam

Spaces - Photo: Mike Roelofs

amsterdam, then & now

Living the dream: To live and work here.

The Netherlands has the distinction of being the most multilingual society in Europe. Besides being fluent in English, many Dutch speak German as well, and many also speak some French and Spanish. At the last count, there were some 180 different nationalities co-existing peacefully and happily here in Amsterdam – that’s more than in Manhattan, which has a population ten times that of Amsterdam.

Just as in the Golden Age, Amsterdam today is an exciting spectacle of humanity and creative industry. As city Mayor Eberhard van der Laan says, ‘What we lack in terms of size, we make up for through […] openness and accessibility. Amsterdam excels as a melting pot of unique spirits from diverse backgrounds, who meet from all corners of the city and push each other to break with convention and step outside the box.’

Regardless of their origins, Amsterdammers typically feel a great sense of civic pride in their city, and a deep appreciation of the quality of life it offers. Frequently characterised as ‘gezelligheid’ – a much-discussed term more easily experienced than described, which roughly approximates a cosy sense of wellbeing – this distinctly Dutch vibe thrives in cosy cafés and convivial bars.

From the painters who dot the canals, capturing the city’s unique charm to the authors of international bestselling novels such as The Miniaturist, Amsterdam continues to beguile artists with its beauty and the sense that history is tangible here as in few other cities. In the introduction to his book Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City, Russell Shorto writes of ‘the mysterious pleasure you feel climbing into the attic of the former West India Company warehouse, where clotted old beams still mildly reek of the tobacco leaves that were packed into the space four centuries ago, an odour that evokes the exploitation and unfathomable adventure that brought our world into being.’

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amsterdam, then & now

An evergreen cultural life: The cultural life in 10 icons.

It’s not just about bikes and buildings, of course. There’s great healthcare and education, and plenty of culture and entertainment.

Amsterdam hosts in excess of 300 festivals every year, from the Jordaan Festival – which celebrates the music and café culture of one of Amsterdam’s best-loved neighbourhoods – to unmissable, largescale events such as King’s Day and the legendary Amsterdam Gay Pride, which has the accolade of being the only gay pride parade in the world to take place on water.

And whether you’re indulging in a last-minute weekend getaway or bedding down for the trip of a lifetime, filling your cultural agenda is never an issue in Amsterdam. There are world-class museums, international theatre performances, live music and open-air spectacles on practically every corner. Here’s just a flavour of what’s on offer. For more details, pick up a copy of the current Amsterdam magazine, A-mag.

ANNE FRANK HOUSE Prinsengracht 263 is where Anne Frank lived in hiding with her family for more than two years during World War II. Now converted into a museum, it contains a sobering exhibition about the persecution of the Jews and persecution in a wider context. www.annefrank.org EYE FILM INSTITUTE Cinematography museum home to an internationally renowned collection of films covering the whole history of cinema, from the first silent movies to the latest contemporary productions. www.eyefilm.nl RIJKSMUSEUM After a decade of unprecedented renovation, the Rijksmuseum finally showed off its new (and old) look in April 2013. Visit the state museum and embark on a journey through Dutch art and history from the Middle Ages and Renaissance right up until the 20th century. A not-to-be-missed experience. www.rijksmuseum.nl

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Het Scheepvaartmuseum

There are worldclass museums, international theatre performances, live music and open-air spectacles on practically every corner

amsterdam, then & now

HET GRACHTENHUIS A tribute to the Canal District, Het Grachtenhuis is housed in a historic house, with multimedia exhibits showing how the engineering marvel was built on swampland during 17th-century city expansion. www.hetgrachtenhuis.nl STEDELIJK MUSEUM The modern art museum’s permanent collection is now on display in the beautifully restored historical building, with fixed spots for highlights such as ‘The Beanery’

by Edward Kienholz and works by Willem de Kooning and Andy Warhol. Half of the ground floor is reserved for the best pieces from the design collection. www.stedelijk.nl TROPENMUSEUM The ‘Museum of the Tropics’ has eight geographically themed permanent exhibitions and an ongoing series of temporary presentations, including both modern and traditional visual arts and photographic work. http://tropenmuseum.nl ARTIS ROYAL ZOO Admire the tropical fish in the Aquarium and travel through time in the Planetarium. See giraffes galloping amongst the zebras, springboks, oryx and wildebeests.

Surround yourself with hundreds of fluttering butterflies in the Butterfly Pavilion or stroll through the historical park with its centuries-old trees and a multitude of plants. www.artis.nl

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REMBRANDTHUIS The house that Rembrandt called home for nearly 20 years boasts an impressive collection of drawings and paintings from the Old Master himself as well as by his contemporaries. The Rembrandthuis is also home to 290 of Rembrandt’s etchings – a near-complete collection – and an alternating selection is on permanent display. www.rembrandthuis.nl HET SCHEEPVAARTMUSEUM The National Maritime Museum comprises a series of small exhibits exploring various elements of maritime life. Moored outside is the Amsterdam, an exact replica of a famous 17th-century Dutch East India Company ship. www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl ROYAL PALACE The Koninklijk Paleis on Dam square is one of three palaces still in use by the Dutch royal family. When it’s not being used for state visits, award ceremonies and other official receptions, it’s open to the public.

Visitors can explore the magnificent interior and discover the building’s rich history. www.paleisamsterdam.nl

Anne Frank Huis

Eye Film Institute Photo: Iwan Baan

Rijksmuseum Photo: Jannes Linders

Het Grachtenhuis Photo: Thijs Wolzak

Stedelijk Museum Herman van Heusden

Tropenmuseum

Artis Royal Zoo Photo: Ronald van Weeren

Rembrandthuis

Royal Palace - Photo: Hesmerg

amsterdam, then & now

Get out of town: Haarlem & beaches, Old Holland, flowers, castles.

In springtime, those with window seats on flights coming into Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport will catch a glimpse of western Holland’s bold strips of coloured tulips.

At the centre of this bulb region, in Lisse, lies the Keukenhof (www.keukenhof.nl), the world’s largest flower garden, which bursts into a kaleidoscope of colour between mid-March and mid-May. It’s accessible from Amsterdam by public transport in a little over an hour.

How this small nation with little natural light became the world’s leading supplier of fresh flowers is nothing short of a miracle, but centuries before the words ‘dot’ and ‘com’ were ever strung together, the price of tulip bulbs reached canal-house levels and led to the bursting of the world’s first speculative bubble in 1637.

Another economic term – the Dutch auction – originates from the country’s flower sales technique. At FloraHolland Aalsmeer (www.floraholland.com), the world’s largest flower auction, visitors can see it in action: a clock counts down so the price is lowered until a buyer is found.

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As the Netherlands blossomed during its Golden Age, Amsterdam’s merchant class sought novel ways to spend its wealth and leisure time. In summer, the city’s elite would leave their primary residences by the stinking canals and retreat to extravagant castles and country estates on the banks of the rivers Amstel and Vecht, many of which can still be visited today, by boat or by bicycle.

And while these historical river estates were purely recreational, the castles of fortified towns such as Muiden, Naarden and Weesp that comprise the UNESCOprotected Defence Line of Amsterdam were once the city’s first line of resistance.

Today this 135-kilometre-long ring of fortifications offers a fascinating and vivid glimpse into medieval times and more recent military history. The Dutch Fortress Museum (www.vestingmuseum.nl), in Naarden, brings the story of these fortified towns to life.

If you’re looking for a more urban city escape, elegant Haarlem bears testimony to the pomp and splendour the Golden Age brought to North Holland. From its origins as a tenth-century toll post, Amsterdam’s close neighbour quickly became the most important inland port after the capital, and in spite of turbulent times following the Spanish invasion in 1572, the city soared in the 17th century, becoming a centre for arts and culture.

To truly experience Amsterdam be sure to head out beyond the borders of the city centre and discover much more

There’s more to Amsterdam than you may think

amsterdam, then & now

If you take the 15-minute train journey from Amsterdam to Haarlem the history lesson begins the moment you arrive.

The only Dutch railway station in the Jugendstil (art nouveau style), it was constructed in 1906 and is characterised by tiled panels, decorative ironwork and a striking wooden signal house. It’s a fitting introduction to a city that’s teeming with exceptionally rich history. There are 4,000 municipal and national listed monuments in Haarlem, many of them in the well-preserved historic city centre and within easy walking distance of one another.

Just a few minutes down the road, Holland’s North Sea beaches, water-sports Mecca IJmuiden aan Zee and bustling Zandvoort aan Zee – not to mention the protected dune landscape – offer a welcome contrast.

If Haarlem bears testimony to the thriving culture of the Dutch Golden Age, North Holland’s industrial history is captured in microcosm in the Zaan region. When Amsterdam’s craft guilds opposed the construction of windmills within the city limits in the 17th century, more than 1,000 were built here instead. Today, this area is a magnificent piece of perfectly preserved industrial heritage.

Wood was sawn and sails and ropes were made in these mills. Ships were built in the nearby docks, and the region developed into the centre of shipbuilding in 17th-century Europe – Peter the Great even came here to learn the craft (see the preserved house where he stayed; www.zaansmuseum.nl). The goods these ships brought back from their voyages – mustard, cocoa, wood, paint and paper – were processed here too. This laid the foundation for rapid industrialisation in the 19th century along the River Zaan.

As shipbuilding was eclipsed by the food industry, Zaandam came to be nicknamed ‘the larder of the Netherlands’.

The perfectly preserved museum village Zaanse Schans (www.dezaanseschans.nl) is a glimpse into 18th- and 19th-century industrial Holland, just 30 minutes from Amsterdam.

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