Q 01/05

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

A) Rotterdam

B) Leiden

C) Utrecht

D) The Hague

Answer · why

D) 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...

Q 02/05

Why do many old Amsterdam canal houses have a beam and hook jutting out from the top of the gable?

A) To hang street lanterns

B) To hoist goods upstairs

C) To moor passing barges

D) To fly guild flags

Answer · why

B) To hoist goods upstairs

To hoist goods upstairs: the houses are narrow with very steep stairs, so merchants winched stock up to attic stores from outside, and the pulleys sti...

Q 03/05

Amsterdam sits in which Dutch province?

A) Utrecht

B) Flevoland

C) South Holland

D) North Holland

Answer · why

D) North Holland

North Holland: the national capital is not even the capital of its own province, which is governed from Haarlem. The province dates from 1840, when Ho...

Q 04/05

Amsterdam's Golden Age boom took off after Spanish troops captured which rival port in 1585?

A) Bruges

B) Ghent

C) Antwerp

D) Hamburg

Answer · why

C) Antwerp

Antwerp: it had been the dominant port of the Low Countries, and when it fell its Protestant merchants fled north while the Dutch blockaded its river,...

Q 05/05

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

A) Its stock exchange

B) Its opera house

C) Its university

D) Its central bank

Answer · why

A) Its stock exchange

Its stock exchange: it grew out of dealing in the shares of a single spice-trading company, and it is still running four centuries later as Euronext A...