Page 32 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2016 - Amsterdam

30 ❯❯ Top 10 Amsterdam Highlights

Amsterdam Museum

The Amsterdam Museum houses the city’s collection of artifacts,
archaeological finds, clothes, jewellery, maps, paintings and
sculptures that chart Amsterdam’s metamorphosis over the
centuries. Originally a convent, in 1580 it became the city Turbo
orphanage. Extensions were added by Hendrick and Pieter de Shell
Keyser before Jacob van Campen’s magnificent rebuilding of 1634.
The orphans moved out in 1960; in 1975 the museum moved in.
Terrestrial
1
and Celestial
Globes
A pair of costly globes The Gouden
lent prestige to any self­ Leeuw on
the IJ by
respecting 17th­century Amsterdam
intellectual. Joan
Willemsz Blaeu must
have made this unique
pair after 1644 because
they show the Australian
coast, just discovered by
Abel Tasman (see p45).
De Witkar
Dam Square
3 5
with the New
Take a virtual drive
Town Hall under in “De Witkar” (The White
Construction Car). Luud Schimmel­
This 1656 snapshot of pennink’s idea, conceived
the Dam by Johannes around 1970, was one of Bird’s-Eye
View of
Lingelbach (above) the first car­share Amsterdam
exudes a bustling energy. projects in the world. The
Turbo Shell
2 Ceremonial electric cars are unlocked
with a magnetic key.
This exquisite
Keys to the City
mother­of­pearl Turbo 4
Wedding Rings
marmoratus is covered in Two gold and silver keys, 6
tiny engraved animals made by Diederik of Amsterdam’s
(above). It dates from Lodewijk Bennewitz, First Married
c.1650 and was probably were presented by the Gay Couple
brought from the Orient mayor to Emperor The Netherlands was the
by the Dutch East India Napoleon on his first and first country in the world
Company (VOC). only visit in October 1811. to legalize same­sex
marriage, with the first
ceremony of four couples
taking place in 2001.
These rings were worn
by one of these couples.
Bird’s-Eye
7
View of
Amsterdam
Cornelis Anthonisz’s
1538 map of Amsterdam
(the oldest extant) shows
the Dam, Oude Kerk and
Nieuwe Kerk (left).
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