Search results
Sort results
Select author
Refine search results
Select genre
Select tag
Hannah Cycles Over the River IJ: Amsterdam in 2075
11 July 2025
In 2075, Amsterdam will celebrate its eight-hundredth anniversary. What will the city look like in half a century? Has it been able to cope with the challenges it now faces? Journalist and social geographer Floor Milikowski paints a future picture of the city on the river IJ, where parcels are deliv
Pub Owner Bet Van Beeren Created a Safe Haven in Gay Capital Amsterdam
27 June 2025
A safe haven for artistic souls and the gay capital of the world – that is the reputation that Amsterdam gained in the second half of the twentieth century. One of the legendary pioneers behind these developments was Bet van Beeren, who, during the tumultuous years of the last century, turned her
Samuel Sarphati, the Man Who Set Amsterdam Back in Motion
16 June 2025
In Amsterdam, streets and buildings bear the name of Samuel Sarphati, and in the park named after him stands an impressive monument in his honour. Rightly so: his visionary ideas about healthcare, urban planning and innovation helped transform Amsterdam into a city of enterprise and social progress.
Willem Writs, a Driving Force of Dutch Culture in 18th-Century Amsterdam
6 May 2025
The Dutch had little sense of culture, and that had to change, according to the country’s first cultural entrepreneurs. Influenced by the new Enlightenment ideals, they established numerous cultural and scientific societies in the eighteenth century. Willem Writs, inventor and founder of Felix Mer
Antonio Lopes Suasso: Migrant, Expat and Knowledge Worker in a Global City
16 April 2025
The beating heart of the global economy and a magnet for migrants: that was Amsterdam in the seventeenth century. For the first time in its history, it became a Jewish city, a ‘Mother in Israel’ for Jews scattered far and wide. All these developments converged in the life of Portuguese merchant
Reyersz & Dirckz, International Merchants in an Expanding City
16 April 2025
In 1485, when Amsterdam was still a young city, a man named Reyer Dircxz lived on Kalverstraat. Together with his uncle Symon, he traded on the Baltic Sea. At the time, Amsterdam was thoroughly Catholic. The Old and New Churches were not yet completed, the waterways were partially unembanked and nea
This Is How Our Cities Are Tackling the Problem of Overtourism
27 June 2024
The tourism industry in Belgium and the Netherlands has long since recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, with visitor numbers even surpassing those of pre-2020. However, not everyone is happy with this development, as some destinations are now facing overtourism. How are the Low Countries addressing
Nits Have Been Painting With Sounds For Fifty Years
25 April 2024
The Amsterdam pop group Nits is celebrating their anniversary with a tour and an EP that sounds as timeless as it is stimulating. Their intelligent pop music sounds both refined and very European. 'We’re always looking for the clear line, as if we were drawing Tintin.'
#22 – When a Miracle Turned Amsterdam into a Holy Town
22 May 2023
Before Amsterdam made an international name for itself as a port and trading town, it became known as a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. Thanks to a Eucharistic miracle.
West India House: The Amsterdam Building Where New York Was Founded
10 March 2023
Everyone knows the Dutch "bought" Manhattan from a local Native American tribe for a few lengths of cloth and a fistful of beads. The bargain struck by Peter Minuit, an employee of the Dutch West India Company, was perhaps the smartest real estate deal in history.
The Façade Stones of Amsterdam
28 June 2022
The streets of Amsterdam are full of design details that are often overlooked by tourists heading for the monuments and sights. The carved façade stones that decorate the canalside houses are among the most interesting and revealing.
Heisteeg is a Microcosm of Amsterdam
24 November 2021
With the solid citizens in one café, the radicals in the opposite bar and the confused tourists in between, Heisteeg in the centre of Amsterdam can be seen as a microcosm of the whole city.
