Royal Palace - Dam Square and other Amsterdam, Netherlands Things to Do Tips

They started to build this palace in 1648, when it was used first as a city hall.
It is designed by Jacob van Campen (classicist style) and for the founding they used almost 14.000 piles.
Now it is used by the Queen for official occasions, for example state visits.
Most of the furniture is from 1808, from the time when Louis Napoleon settled in this palace.
Before visiting this palace please check first the opening dates and times.

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Phone: +31-20- 6204060
Address: Dam 1
Website: http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl

This church is built in the 14th century, as a replacement for the other church, the old church, which is still in use, because lack of space. However this church, New Church, was marked by many fires and rebuilding. The church as we see it today is since 1650.
Since 1814 are all Dutch Kings and Queens official inaugurated in this church (it started with King William I). Nowadays however the church is used also for cultural activities, such as exhibitions, concerts and fashion shows.
The Royal Wedding of Prince Willem-Alexander and Máxima Zorreguieta (the Church blessing of the marriage) took place in this church on 02-02-2002.
Carel A. ter Linden, emeritus minister of the Kloosterkerkgemeente church community in The Hague, conducted the church ceremony.
Royal guests, government representatives, family and friends of the Royal Couple attended the ceremony.

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Phone: +31-20-6386909
Address: Dam 34-38
Directions: Right next to the Royal Palace in the centre of the city
Website: http://www.nieuwekerk.nl

This monument, which commemorates Dutch victims from WW II is situated on Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam. It is designed by J.J.P. Oud and made by the sculptor J. Raaedecker and is 22 m high.
In the wall behind the lions are urns with soil from each Dutch province and (former) colonies.

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Address: Dam Square

This Stock Exchange from 1903 is designed by Hendrik Berlage in somewhat austere style. Due to lack of space the trading in stocks was moved to Beursplein 5 (the current Stock Exchange building) already in 1912.
The last traders - those in agricultural futures - left in 1998. However, since 1987, the building has been used for exhibitions, concerts, congresses and other events and houses the Beurs van Berlage Café and a museum.
The Royal Wedding of Prins Willem-Alexander and Máxima Zorreguieta (the civil marriage ceremony) took place in this building on 02-02-2002.The ceremony was performed by the Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen.

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Phone: +31-20-5304141
Address: Beursplein 1/Damrak 243
Directions: 2 minutes walk from Dam Square
Website: http://www.beursvanberlage.nl

Here you can see the history of Amsterdam especially the Golden Age. Really great to see.
It is situated above a department store and there is a nice few over Dam Square.

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Phone: +31-20-5230623
Address: Dam 20
Website: http://www.madametussauds.nl

The Hermitage Amsterdam opened its doors on February 28th, 2004. It is situated in the Amstelhof building, which was built in 1681-1683 as a home for elderly in need of care (initially only for women, but also for men from 1719) and has remained in use as a nursing home to this day. However due to various renovations in the 19th and 20th centuries, little is left of the original interior layout of Amstelhof.
By the end of 2007 the entire Amstelhof building will be in use by the Hermitage Amsterdam, with a total floor space of over 4,000 m², as now there is only abt. 500 square metres of exhibition space.
Small temporary exhibitions drawn from the rich collection of The State Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg will be presented here.
For the inaugural exhibition was chosen for the Greek Gold. The 2nd exhibition was Nicholas & Alexandra followed by VENEZIA! Art of the 18th century. The 4th exhibition was: PILGRIM Treasures (Byzantium-Jerusalem) and the last one was: Silver wonders from the East.
The present exhibition Collector's in St. Petersburg is till March 11th, 2007.
Next exhibition: Persia (30/03/07 till 16/09/07).

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Phone: +31-20-5308751
Address: Nieuwe Herengracht 14, Amsterdam
Directions: Near to Theatre Carre and Waterlooplein.
Website: http://www.hermitage.nl/en/index.htm

The architect of this huge neogothic building is P.J.H. Cuypers (Central Station). It opened its doors in 1885 and it has today the biggest and the best Collection of Dutch art in the world, such as art from the Golden Age, paintings from Frans Hals, Vermeer and the Nachtwacht (NightWatch) from Rembrandt. But you can see also Asiatic art, collection of sculpture and applied art: furniture, glass, silver, delftware, busts, dolls' houses, tapestries, fashion and other decorative objects made in the Netherlands and Europe between the medieval period and the early 20th century.
The museum is yearly visited by more than a million people.
Please note that the Rijksmuseum is being renovated till 2008. During the renovation the Rijksmuseum is showing in the redesigned Philips Wing the finest works from its 17th century collection.

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Phone: +31-20-6747047
Address: Stadhouderskade 42
Website: http://www.rijksmuseum.nl

It is a modern building from 1973 (designed by Gerrit Rietveld). In 1999 there was built a new wing (designed by Kisho Kurokawa). It houses permanent collection of van Gogh’s work - paintings (200), abt. 500 sketches and more than 800 letters of Van Gogh to his brother Theo.
Besides this permanent collection there is also a collection of other artist such as P.Gauguin, Bernard, Denis, C.Monet.

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Phone: +31-20-5705252
Address: Paulus Potterstraat 7
Website: http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl

It is built in 1895 (neorenaissance style designed by A.W. Weissman) to house the works which were given to the city from Sophia de Bruyn. However since 1938 it is a national museum for modern art, where you can find works from Picasso, Matisse, Mondriaan, Cézanne en Monet. There are also regularly temporary exhibitions.
Due to the renovation and expansion of the building is the Stedelijk Museum closed.
Museum is now located in former TPG Building (the post group) - near Central Station.
The temporary address is: Oosterdokskade 3-5, Amsterdam

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Phone: +31-20-5732737
Address: Paulus Potterstraat 13
Website: http://www.stedelijk.nl

Since 1840 Coster Diamonds is one of the oldest firms (factories) from Amsterdam, which cuts and polishes diamonds.
In 1852 they've got from prince Albert (husband of Queen Victoria) to repolish the famous blue-white Koh-I-Noor diamond (almost 109 carats), which is part of England's crown jewels.
When visiting Coster Diamonds you can see besides the replica of the England's crown with this diamond also the process of cutting and polishing of a diamond.

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Address: Paulus Potterstraat 2-8
Directions: In the Museum district, just opposite to Rijksmuseum, 2 minutes walk from Van Gogh Museum and Stedelijk museum.
Website: http://www.costerdiamonds.com