Page 90 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2016 - Amsterdam

88 ❯❯ Amsterdam Area by Area

sunk to support them. The building
AMSTERDAM’S COLONIAL PAST blocked Amsterdammers’ view of the
Acknowledged during the 17th century sea, causing much controversy at the
as the most powerful city in the time. The ornate red-brick façade
Netherlands, Amsterdam turned depicts themes of travel, trade and
its sights overseas. Expeditions city history, picked out in gold and
established a spice trade out of other colours. Visit the station
Indonesia, and in 1602 the Dutch East restaurant, 1e Klas (see p67), to see
India Company (VOC) was founded,
followed in 1621 by the Dutch West its fine Art Nouveau setting. Major
India Company. Dutch colonies in Brazil renovation works mean that parts of
and on Manhattan Island in the US the building are closed until 2017.
eventually succumbed, respectively,
Amsterdam Museum
to Portuguese and English sea power. 7
An excellent place to start a
visit to Amsterdam, this museum
Museum Ons’ Lieve
5 chronicles how a tiny fishing village
Heer op Solder
on the Amstel river grew into one of
This canal house-turned- the wealthiest and most beautiful
museum, with its sober cities in the world (see pp30–33).
decoration and delightful
Beurs van Berlage
schuilkerk (secret Catholic 8
church) hidden within its MAP N2 • Damrak 243
upper floors, plunges • 020 530 4141 (exhibitions)
visitors back into the • Open only during exhibitions
Golden Age (see pp24–5). • Admission charge
• www.beursvanberlage.nl
Centraal Station
6 The innovative Stock Exchange
building was derided when it
MAP P1
• Stationsplein • 0900 9292 Monstrance, was unveiled in 1903, but is
Many visitors’ experience of Museum now considered a key work of
Amsterdam begins at Ons’ Lieve the period. Designed by the
Centraal Station, the Heer op pioneer of Dutch modern
transport hub of the city, Solder architecture, H P Berlage, its
where some 1,400 trains functional lines are softened
arrive and leave every day. It by ornamental ironwork and tiled
was built in the 1880s in Neo- mosaics. The Stock Exchange has
Renaissance style by P J H Cuypers moved next door and the building
and A L van Gendt. Before work on is now used to hold conferences,
the building could start, three exhibitions and occasionally
artificial islands had to be concerts. There is a guided tour
constructed with 8,600 wooden piles of the building every Saturday.
Amsterdam’s
Centraal Station
Het Lieverdje,
Spui

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