60 free Amsterdam trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
47 free Amsterdam trivia questions with answers. Amsterdam is a city of 1,500 bridges, nearly a million people and about as many bicycles, and this quiz covers the whole of it. You get the history (a dam on a river, herring money, the Golden Age, the world's first stock exchange, the wartime years), the sights (the canal ring, Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank House, Dam Square, the Skinny Bridge) and the living city: Ajax, Heineken, King's Day, Pride's canal parade and the rules on where you can and cannot smoke. It is written for travellers planning a trip, people who have just come back from one, Dutch expats and pub-quiz hosts who want a geography round with real bite. Questions run from easy to hard so a mixed table can play together. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and each question carries its source, so if a fact surprises you, you can go and read where it came from.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Amsterdam is the Dutch capital, but the government and parliament sit in which city?
The Hague
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.
Q 02The city's name literally means a dam on which river?
The Amstel
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.
Q 03Amsterdam sits in which Dutch province?
North Holland
'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.
Q 04In which century did Amsterdam's Golden Age make it the wealthiest city in the Western world?
17th
It was built on herring, then Baltic grain, then the Asian and Atlantic trades. Locals still say the city 'is built on herringbones'.
Q 05Founded in 1602, what Amsterdam institution is considered the world's oldest 'modern' one of its kind?
Its stock exchange
It began when the Dutch East India Company started trading its own shares. Post-Brexit it overtook London as Europe's largest bourse.
Q 06Which body, chartered in 1602 with an Asian monopoly, is often called the world's first multinational corporation?
The Dutch East India Company
Known by its Dutch initials VOC, it out-traded every rival in Asia. Its Amsterdam office was the world's first stock exchange.
Q 07Roughly how many bridges does Amsterdam have?
About 1,500
They cross more than 100 km of canals linking about 90 islands. The three concentric 17th-century canals were listed by UNESCO in 2010.
Q 08Which of these is NOT one of the three main canals of the UNESCO-listed Grachtengordel?
Singel
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.
Q 09What nickname does Amsterdam share with several other canal cities?
Venice of the North
Stockholm, Bruges and St Petersburg all claim it too. Amsterdam's canals were the product of deliberate 17th-century planning rather than lagoon geography.
Q 10In 2015 Amsterdam's roughly 442,000 households owned about how many bicycles?
847,000
That is nearly two per household. Around 12,000 to 15,000 bikes are fished out of the canals every year.
Q 11Roughly how many kilometres of bike paths does Amsterdam have?
400 km
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.
Q 12The 1960s counterculture group Provo proposed which famous scheme for Amsterdam?
A free White Bicycle plan
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.
Q 13Which artist, most associated with Amsterdam, was buried as a poor man in the Westerkerk in 1669?
Rembrandt
Q 21Amsterdam's official motto, 'Heroic, Determined, Merciful', was awarded in 1947 by whom?
Queen Wilhelmina
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.
Q 22The three X-shaped crosses on Amsterdam's flag and coat of arms are which saint's crosses?
St Andrew's
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.
Q 23The Royal Palace on Dam Square, built on 13,659 wooden piles, was originally built in 1655 as what?
The city hall
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.
Q 14The Rijksmuseum's star 1642 group portrait of a civic militia company is commonly known as what?
The Night Watch
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.
Q 15Which architect designed both the Rijksmuseum (1885) and Amsterdam Centraal station (1889)?
Pierre Cuypers
The two buildings look like siblings, all red brick and Gothic-Renaissance flourish. Critics called the museum too Catholic for a Protestant nation.
Q 16The Rijksmuseum was actually founded in 1798 in which city, before moving to Amsterdam in 1808?
The Hague
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.
Q 17The Van Gogh Museum opened in 1973 in a building designed by which De Stijl architect and furniture designer?
Gerrit Rietveld
He died in 1964, nine years before it opened. It holds the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings anywhere.
Q 18The Anne Frank House museum preserves the Secret Annex at number 263 of which canal?
Prinsengracht
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.
Q 19Of the eight people who hid in the Secret Annex, who was the only one to survive the camps?
Otto Frank
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.
Q 20Roughly what share of Amsterdam's population was Jewish before the Second World War?
10%
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.
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.
Q 24In which year was the National Monument on Dam Square erected?
1956
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.
Q 25Amsterdam's oldest wooden house, Het Houten Huys, dates from around 1420 and stands in which enclosed courtyard?
The Begijnhof
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.
Q 26The Jordaan district's name most likely comes from which French word?
Jardin (garden)
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.
Q 27Amsterdam's largest park is named after which 17th-century writer?
Joost van den Vondel
The Vondelpark, in Oud-Zuid, opened in the 19th century. It draws around 10 million visitors a year, many of them on bikes.
Q 28Which football club, founded in Amsterdam on 18 March 1900, has won the European Cup four times?
Ajax
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.
Q 29Amsterdam's stadium, opened in 1996 as the Amsterdam ArenA, was renamed in 2018 after whom?
Johan Cruyff
He had died in 2016. Since 2007 no Ajax player has been allowed to wear his number 14 shirt.
Q 30Amsterdam hosted the Summer Olympics in which year?
1928
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.