60 Fun Facts About Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the Dutch capital, but the government and parliament sit in which city?

The arrangement is written into the constitution. Even in the Dutch Republic, Amsterdam was neither the capital nor the seat of government while being by far the richest city.

The city's name literally means a dam on which river?

The dam was built between roughly 1264 and 1275, and the settlement first appears in a 1275 toll document as 'Amestelledamme'. The river still ends in the city centre and feeds the canals.

Amsterdam sits in which Dutch province?

'Holland' is technically just these two provinces, which is why the Dutch government now discourages using it for the whole country. The city is about two metres below sea level.

In which century did Amsterdam's Golden Age make it the wealthiest city in the Western world?

It was built on herring, then Baltic grain, then the Asian and Atlantic trades. Locals still say the city 'is built on herringbones'.

Founded in 1602, what Amsterdam institution is considered the world's oldest 'modern' one of its kind?

It began when the Dutch East India Company started trading its own shares. Post-Brexit it overtook London as Europe's largest bourse.

Which body, chartered in 1602 with an Asian monopoly, is often called the world's first multinational corporation?

Known by its Dutch initials VOC, it out-traded every rival in Asia. Its Amsterdam office was the world's first stock exchange.

Roughly how many bridges does Amsterdam have?

They cross more than 100 km of canals linking about 90 islands. The three concentric 17th-century canals were listed by UNESCO in 2010.

Which of these is NOT one of the three main canals of the UNESCO-listed Grachtengordel?

The Singel was the medieval moat and now forms the innermost ring, giving the centre its horseshoe shape. The three big canals mean Patricians', Emperor's and Prince's canal.

What nickname does Amsterdam share with several other canal cities?

Stockholm, Bruges and St Petersburg all claim it too. Amsterdam's canals were the product of deliberate 17th-century planning rather than lagoon geography.

In 2015 Amsterdam's roughly 442,000 households owned about how many bicycles?

That is nearly two per household. Around 12,000 to 15,000 bikes are fished out of the canals every year.

Roughly how many kilometres of bike paths does Amsterdam have?

Flat terrain, short distances and deliberately awkward driving keep the modal share for bikes near 40 percent. In 2011 about 83,000 bikes were stolen.

The 1960s counterculture group Provo proposed which famous scheme for Amsterdam?

The plan wanted the centre closed to all motor traffic. Provo also proposed painting polluters' chimneys white and was disbanded in 1967 after helping topple the mayor.

Which artist, most associated with Amsterdam, was buried as a poor man in the Westerkerk in 1669?

His lover Hendrickje Stoffels and son Titus lie there too. Every 15 July flowers are hung on his marker and a lunchtime concert is played.

The Rijksmuseum's star 1642 group portrait of a civic militia company is commonly known as what?

It measures 363 by 437 cm and was paid for by the 18 men in it at 100 guilders each. Its real title names Captain Frans Banninck Cocq.

Which architect designed both the Rijksmuseum (1885) and Amsterdam Centraal station (1889)?

The two buildings look like siblings, all red brick and Gothic-Renaissance flourish. Critics called the museum too Catholic for a Protestant nation.

The Rijksmuseum was actually founded in 1798 in which city, before moving to Amsterdam in 1808?

Its first collection fitted into five rooms at Huis ten Bosch palace. Louis Bonaparte moved it to Amsterdam's Royal Palace when he was king of Holland.

The Van Gogh Museum opened in 1973 in a building designed by which De Stijl architect and furniture designer?

He died in 1964, nine years before it opened. It holds the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings anywhere.

The Anne Frank House museum preserves the Secret Annex at number 263 of which canal?

Otto Frank moved his spice and pectin businesses there in 1940, and the family hid in the rear from 1942. The museum opened on 3 May 1960.

Of the eight people who hid in the Secret Annex, who was the only one to survive the camps?

He returned to Amsterdam, was given Anne's diary by Miep Gies and published it in 1947. The hiding place was betrayed and raided in August 1944.

Roughly what share of Amsterdam's population was Jewish before the Second World War?

About 60,000 Jews lived in the city at the time of the Nazi occupation. The old Jewish quarter was later largely demolished for the metro and the Stopera.

Amsterdam's official motto, 'Heroic, Determined, Merciful', was awarded in 1947 by whom?

It recognised the city's wartime bravery, including the February Strike of 1941 against the deportations. The words appear beneath the three crosses on the coat of arms.

The three X-shaped crosses on Amsterdam's flag and coat of arms are which saint's crosses?

Oddly, the city's patron saint is St Nicholas, not Andrew. Emperor Maximilian I let the city add his crown above the shield in 1489.

The Royal Palace on Dam Square, built on 13,659 wooden piles, was originally built in 1655 as what?

It only became a palace in 1808 under Louis Bonaparte. New monarchs still sign the abdication act there before being sworn in next door at the Nieuwe Kerk.

In which year was the National Monument on Dam Square erected?

It was designed by J.J.P. Oud to honour the victims of the Second World War. The Nieuwe Kerk and Madame Tussauds stand on the same square.

Amsterdam's oldest wooden house, Het Houten Huys, dates from around 1420 and stands in which enclosed courtyard?

It is one of only two wooden houses left in the centre; the rest were replaced with brick after fires in the 16th century. The courtyard was home to a lay Catholic sisterhood.

The Jordaan district's name most likely comes from which French word?

Most of its streets and canals are named after trees and flowers. Once working-class, it is now among the priciest addresses in the country.

Amsterdam's largest park is named after which 17th-century writer?

The Vondelpark, in Oud-Zuid, opened in the 19th century. It draws around 10 million visitors a year, many of them on bikes.

Which football club, founded in Amsterdam on 18 March 1900, has won the European Cup four times?

It won three in a row from 1971 to 1973 with Johan Cruyff and beat Milan in the 1995 Champions League final. Its youth academy is famous worldwide.

Amsterdam's stadium, opened in 1996 as the Amsterdam ArenA, was renamed in 2018 after whom?

He had died in 2016. Since 2007 no Ajax player has been allowed to wear his number 14 shirt.

Amsterdam hosted the Summer Olympics in which year?

Those Games lit an Olympic flame for the first time and were the first sponsored by Coca-Cola. Bids for 1952 and 1992 lost to Helsinki and Barcelona.

On 15 February 1864, Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought which Amsterdam brewery to start his company?

The brand dated to 1592. The original brewery is now the Heineken Experience, and the beer's green bottle and red star are recognised worldwide.

Amsterdam's main airport, Schiphol, actually lies in which neighbouring municipality?

It sits about four metres below sea level on a reclaimed lake. The name may mean 'ship hole', after vessels supposedly lost in the old lake, though no wrecks turned up when it was drained.

Schiphol first opened on 16 September 1916 as what?

Civilian flying began after the First World War and the military role faded away. It is now KLM's hub and the third-busiest airport in Europe.

Which Amsterdam market, founded in 1862, is billed as the world's only floating flower market?

The stalls sit on barges between Muntplein and Koningsplein. These days it sells more bulbs and souvenirs than cut flowers.

The Homomonument, three pink granite triangles in Amsterdam, opened in 1987 as the world's first memorial to what?

The pink triangle was the badge Nazi camps forced on men jailed for homosexuality. The Netherlands went on to become the first country to legalise same-sex marriage, in 2001, with the first weddings held in Amsterdam.

The high point of Pride Amsterdam, held since 1996, is a parade of what?

The Canal Parade runs down the Prinsengracht and the river on the first Saturday of August. In 2014 the first Jewish and Moroccan boats joined.

Since 2014, King's Day (Koningsdag) has been celebrated on 27 April because it is whose birthday?

It was Queen's Day on 30 April under Beatrix. The whole country turns orange and holds a nationwide 'vrijmarkt' of second-hand stalls.

What portmanteau nickname does Amsterdam's combined city hall and opera house carry?

It blends 'stadhuis' and 'opera'. The name began as a protest slogan against the project, so the theatre itself never uses it.

The 1345 Miracle of Amsterdam involved what surviving a fire?

A dying man had vomited up the sacrament, which was put in the fire and found intact the next day. It made the city an important medieval pilgrimage site.

Which airline's cargo Boeing 747 crashed into flats in Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer district in 1992, killing 43?

Both engines came off one wing after take-off from Schiphol. A grey poplar that survived the crash is now a memorial called 'The Tree That Saw It All'.

Amsterdam's metro Line 52, the long-delayed North-South line under the IJ, finally opened in which year?

Construction began in 2003 and caused canal-house subsidence along the route. The first metro line had opened in 1977 out to the Bijlmermeer.

The Magere Brug over the river is better known in English by what name?

Legend says two sisters living on opposite banks built the 1691 original. In one version they were simply named Mager, meaning skinny.

The 1637 collapse of the price of which commodity is remembered as the first speculative bubble?

At the peak a single Semper Augustus bulb sold for 10,000 guilders, more than a fine canal house. Bulbs first flowered in the Netherlands in 1594.

Which science museum, in a green ship-shaped Renzo Piano building, rises over the IJ tunnel?

Its sloping roof is a public square with a view over the harbour. The institution traces its origins to 1923.

Amsterdam banned smoking what in public around the red-light district from 25 May 2023?

It was part of a crackdown on rowdy tourism that also moved brothel closing times earlier. Coffee shops themselves stayed open.

Amsterdam's population in 1300 was roughly what?

It grew on the Baltic grain trade after 1441 while other Dutch towns shrank. It passed 941,000 in the city proper by 2026.

Which 17th-century philosopher, born in Amsterdam to Portuguese-Jewish parents, was expelled from its synagogue?

Descartes and Locke both lived in the city as exiles, drawn by its tolerance and free press. Spinoza ground lenses for a living after his excommunication.

Which 1170 disaster turned the shallow river IJ into a wide estuary and made the site habitable?

A trading settlement rose immediately afterwards, and the dam that gave the city its name was built between about 1264 and 1275.

Amsterdam first appears in a 1275 document granting a road toll exemption by which count of Holland?

The residents 'apud Amestelledamme', at the dam in the Amstel, could thereafter travel freely through the county.

Which family, recorded since 1019, held stewardship of the area under the bishop of Utrecht?

Farmers had begun reclaiming land upstream around Ouderkerk aan de Amstel as early as the late 10th century.

Which hated Spanish tax helped spark the Dutch revolt that grew into the Eighty Years' War?

Religious persecution by the Inquisition was the other main grievance; the tolerant republic that emerged drew Jews, Huguenots and Flemish printers to Amsterdam.

Which 19th-century waterway gave Amsterdam's port a shorter route to the sea?

Along with the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal it powered what is sometimes called the city's second Golden Age, when the Rijksmuseum and Concertgebouw were built.

Roughly how many islands is Amsterdam divided into?

They are linked by more than 1,200 bridges along over 100 km of canals, which is why the city is so often compared with Venice.

Where does the Port of Amsterdam rank among European ports?

It handles mostly bulk cargo and is the Netherlands' second port after Rotterdam, with more than 150 cruise ships a year.

Which 1950s singer's hit 'Geef mij maar Amsterdam' praised the city above Paris?

He sang especially about his own neighbourhood, the Jordaan; Brel recorded his own 'Amsterdam' in 1964.

Roughly how many visitors does the Amsterdam Dance Event attract each October?

It is one of the world's biggest electronic music conferences and club festivals; Dutch trance stars Tiësto and Armin van Buuren are regulars.

How many halls does the Concertgebouw contain?

The Grote Zaal, Kleine Zaal and Spiegelzaal host some 900 events a year for over 700,000 people, in a hall famed for its acoustics.

What is a 'bruine kroeg' in Amsterdam?

Dim lights, candles and an older clientele mark them out; Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein are the main tourist nightlife squares.

Amsterdam lost bids for which two Summer Olympics, to Helsinki and Barcelona?

It had hosted the 1928 Games and even staged sailing events for Antwerp's 1920 Olympics on the Buiten IJ.

The Dam to Dam Run covers 16 km from Amsterdam to which town?

The city also stages the Amsterdam Marathon, based at the restored 1928 Olympic Stadium.