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Historically yours – The Monuments in the City on water
By Rahul viz
One can always think that Amsterdam is one big historic monument. Still, some buildings are more historic and monumental than others and therefore more worth going out of one's way for. One won't have to go far out of your way to see Centraal Station. Designed by architect Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers, and built between 1884 and 1889 on three artificial islands in the IJ channel, which themselves were supported on 30,000 pilings?
The extravagance of Centraal Station is in its Dutch neo-Renaissance facade, partly for the liveliness that permanently surrounds it. The left one of the two central towers has a gilded weathervane; on the right one there's a clock. One can leisurely soak up the buzz that swirls around the station in a blur of people, backpacks, bikes, trams, buses, vendors, pickpockets, and junkies. There should be a busker or two, maybe even a full-blown jazz or rock combo, and maybe a street organ or if one is fortunate it'll be a century-old Perlee hand-ground barrel-organ, made of richly carved and decorated wood.
Not far away, across Prins Hendrikkade at the corner of Geldersekade, is the Schreierstoren or the Tower of Tears, from 1480, once a strong point in the city wall bristling with cannon. Its name comes from the tears allegedly shed by wives as their men folk sailed away on voyages from which they might never return. A stone tablet on the wall shows a woman with her hand to her face. The tower's ground floor now houses a cozy traditional bar, the V.O.C. Café.
No indistinctness surrounds the Munttoren or Mint Tower on Muntplein, a busy traffic intersection at Rokin and the Singel canal. The base of the tower, from 1490, used to be part of the Reguliers Gate in the city wall. In 1620 Hendrick de Keyser topped it with an ornate, lead-covered tower, whose carillon bells sing out gaily every hour and play a one-hour concert on Friday at noon.
The tilting Montelbaanstoren, the "leaning tower of Amsterdam," a fortification at the juncture of the Oude Schans and Waalseilandsgracht canals, dates from 1512. It is one of few existing elements of the city's once powerful defensive works. In 1606, Hendrick de Keyser added an octagonal tower and spire. The building now houses local offices of a Water Authority.
Built in the 14th century, De Waag or the Weigh House Nieuwmarkt is the city's only surviving medieval fortified gate. It later became a guild house and among the guilds lodged here was the Surgeon's Guild, immortalized in Rembrandt's painting The Anatomy Lesson, which depicts a dissection being conducted in the upper-floor Theatrum Anatomicum.
Most of Golden Age Amsterdam's wealth was generated by trade, and most of that trade was organized by the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, based at Oost Indisch Huis or East India House on Oude Hoogstraat, off Kloveniersburgwal. The West Indisch Huis or West India House is located at Herenmarkt. On the north side of this little square is a red-brick building, built as a meat-trading hall in 1615, that in 1623 became headquarters of the Dutch West India Company, which controlled trade with the Americas.
The monuments are scattered all over Amsterdam and are a sight for sore eyes. One does not has to far to see these historical museums. They are a delight for all the visitors of Amsterdam.
About the Author
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