Amsterdam on fire!
A reconstruction of Amsterdam in the late middleages, before the big fires in the 1400s.
A reconstruction of Amsterdam in the late middleages, before the big fires in the 1400s.
Between the mid-1300s and a century later Amsterdam was ‘coming of age’. In this blog we talk about the success factors of Medieval Amsterdam.
Every year, on one weekend in mid-March around midnight, large groups of people march through the oldest streets of Amsterdam. The shops on the Kalverstraat and Nieuwedijk have closed long ago. It’s also not the bars on the Warmoesstraat or the theatres they’re after. The quiet men and women are gathered from all over the…
It takes a trained eye to recognise them everywhere in the city. The seal of Amsterdam. Why a ship? Who are the people depicted on it and what about that little dog? More importantly: what does it say about Amsterdam today? First, a little history about Amsterdam as an upcoming maritime town. A seal of…
The successful but young city of Amsterdam needed the narrative of a glorious past. Joost van den Vondel found it with his Gijsbrecht van Amstel.
The first document mentioning Amsterdam – dated 1275 – marks the end of the pre-historical unwritten story of the city. How did Amsterdam look, just before this so called birth certificate was written? The first Amsterdammer? Right inside the Oude Kerk, three meters below the surface lie the remains of a man. At first sight…
Romans in Amsterdam? New Excavations raise an old question.
It doesn’t happen every day that the first pages of a city’s history, the very beginning, have to be rewritten. Not so long ago this was the case for pre-historical Amsterdam.