De Wallen Historic Canals

The Oude Kerk features a jagged, dark spire that rises abruptly above the tightly packed houses of the Red Light District. It began as a wooden chapel in the thirteenth century before evolving into the city's first parish church. Sailors…

A narrow brick townhouse stands on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal with a gabled roof that hides a secret. Inside the top three floors sits a fully functioning Catholic church, complete with an altar, pulpits, and pews. In the sixteen sixties,…

The Schreierstoren, or Criers' Tower, marks the corner of the Geldersekade with a curved, fifteenth-century brick facade that juts into the water. It served as a defensive bastion for the city walls, but its name comes from the women who…

The Zeedijk is a narrow, curving street defined by the centuries-old dike that once protected Amsterdam from the Zuiderzee. It served as the primary sea wall for the medieval city, separating the harbor from the dry land where sailors and…

The heavy, brick tower in the center of Nieuwmarkt features five distinct spires rising above a thick stone base. This is the Saint Anthony’s Gate, completed in fourteen eighty-eight as a defensive entrance to Amsterdam. It served as a…

The Huis de Pinto stands out with a broad, ornate sandstone facade that sits strangely heavy against the brick houses flanking it. Isaac de Pinto, a wealthy Sephardic Jewish merchant, bought the structure in sixteen fifty-one and remodeled…

The Zuiderkerk features a tall, stone tower that dominates the skyline of the former Saint Anthony district. Completed in sixteen eleven, this was the first church in Amsterdam built specifically for Protestant services after the…

The Trippenhuis on the Kloveniersburgwal features two identical houses built behind a single, massive facade that spans the canal. Louis and Hendrick Trip, two brothers who made a fortune in the seventeenth century trading iron and…