Amsterdam Canal Houses

by Tanja
Amsterdam Canal Houses architecture and interior

The famous Amsterdam canals and its canal houses are part of the United Nations World Heritage. The impressive mansions along the Amsterdam canals were built during the Golden Age of Amsterdam. The lavish interior of the Amsterdam canal houses and their architecture reflect the financial and societal success of the merchant families in 17th century Amsterdam.

History of the Amsterdam Canal Houses

From 1580 to the end of the 17th century, Amsterdam grew enormously. From a small portal town of 30.000 people, Amsterdam transformed into an international city of 160.000 inhabitants.

The Amsterdam merchants made their fortunes trading grain and wood. Large investments went to the Dutch VOC, the East India Company. This mega-corporation sent ships to the far East to trade exotic spices. The Dutch West India Company (WIC) traded African slaves with the Americas. Amsterdam had quickly become the most important city in the world.

People from all over Europe flocked to Amsterdam to seek their luck and fortune. The tolerant climate in the city also attracted refugees from France (Huguenots) and Portugal and Spain and Antwerp (Jews).

Digging the Amsterdam Canal Belt

To house the merchant families and the many immigrants, Amsterdam needed to expand. Between 1613 and 1662, three canals were dug: Herengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht. The Amsterdam Canal Belt was placed in a half moon-shape around the Singel canal, enclosing the medieval city center.

The creation of the Amsterdam Canals was a huge project. Plots of land had to be expropriated, and funding raised. Various areas were appointed with a function: the Western Islands were meant for shipyards and shipping companies.

Affluent merchants, bankers, administrators, and other wealthy people could buy a plot of land along the canal to build their own ‘city palace’ Smelly factories or loud workshops were not allowed in the canal belt. The Jordaan was created for the workers and their workshops and small businesses.

Amsterdam Canal House Gables

Typical of the Amsterdam Canal Houses are their facades. It was considered ugly if you could see the roof from the street. The roof was therefore hidden from view by a gable. In the first years, this was the ‘stepped gable’. Later more gable styles became in fashion: the neck gable, the bell gable and later the sober horizontal gable.

Canal Houses in Amsterdam are narrow but deep. That is because the land along the canals was divided into plots each of about the same size. Some bought two plots of land to build a luxury double-fronted mansion.

Merchant houses and mansions

The architecture of Amsterdam canal houses from the 17th century can be distinguished between merchant houses (‘koopmanshuizen’) and a townhouse or mansion (‘herenhuis’). Merchant houses were not just used as a residence, but also to store goods.

Goods such as spices, coffee and tulip bulbs were transported into the city by barges and hoisted on to the attic. On many merchant houses, there is still a hoist beam visible next to a small window with shutters.

The attic was used to store goods in Amsterdam merchant houses, by hoisting the goods up. Picture taken at the Museum Our Lord in the Attic.

Amsterdam Canal House Architecture

There are a few architects who created many of the Amsterdam canal houses. The first is Hendrick de Keyser who created an architectural style in the early decades of the 17th century we call ‘Amsterdam Renaissance’. It’s a rather ‘busy’ style in typical Dutch red bricks with lots of ornaments and horizontal lines.

Amsterdam Rennaissance

Hendrick de Keyser built three famous churches: Zuiderkerk, Westerkerk and Noorderkerk. He also created two mansions on the Amsterdam canals: the House with the Heads (to bevisited at the Embassy of the free mind) on Keizersgracht 123 (1622) and Bartolotti House on Herengracht 170-172 (1617).

Dutch Baroque

From 1625, Dutch Baroque (Hollands Classicismn or Baroque) became the preferred architecture for many Amsterdam canal houses. This was a more sober and chique style. Architect Jacob van Campen set the fashion with the Amsterdam City Hall on Dam Square in sandstone. This building is now the Amsterdam Royal Palace.

Architect Vingboons

Architect Philips Vingboons was favored to create many of the double-fronted canal houses. He designed a new type of gable: the neck gable. Mid 17th century Vingboons was the most important architect in Amsterdam.

His most famous work is the Cromhouthuis at Herengracht. But because Vingboons was Catholic and the power in the city belonged to the protestant elite, he was never asked to create a government building.

Cromhout canal houses
4 Identical Cromhout canal houses with typical neck gable on Herengracht, Amsterdam.

READ MORE: Why are Amsterdam houses crooked?

In the back of the Amsterdam canal houses, there are spacious private gardens with garden houses. These gardens cannot be accessed or viewed from the street. Once a year, during the Amsterdam Garden Days, these gardens are open to the public.

In the streets between the canals, there were shops. The lower part of these shops was made of wood and the entrance was not with stairs but on streetlevel. Upstairs there were living quarters.

Shops on the canals were not allowed, except on corners. The connecting streets of the Amsterdam canal belt is now a popular shopping area with small boutiques known as ‘9 streets‘.

9 streets connect the Amsterdam canals
Connecting the Amsterdam canals are the ‘9 streets’.

Coach houses

In some cases, there is a parallel street between two canals. It was possible to buy also the house along this street, in the back of the canal mansion. This was a perfect location for a carriage or coach house and stables. You can still see the old gates of these coach houses in Langestraat and Kerkstraat.

Couch houses or carriage houses were very common in the Golden Age, particularly behind canal houses. Rich Amsterdam merchants preferred to be transported along the canals by carriage. As more people could afford a carriage, problems started to arise. With the streets being so narrow, parking was as much of a hassle as it is today.

The Golden Bend

From 1662 the Herengracht was dug further to the East. The new bend in the canal quickly became the poshest canal. The most impressive ‘city palaces’ of Amsterdam were built on Herengracht.

The houses in the Golden Bend of Herengracht are wider than the canal houses that were built fifty years earlier. ‘The Golden Bend’ in the Herengracht is the most famous part of the Amsterdam Canals and symbolizes the wealth and glory of the Amsterdam Golden Century.

The interior of the Amsterdam Canal Houses

There are hardly any Amsterdam canal houses that have an interior from the 17th century. Most houses were renovated in the 18th century, to make them bigger or adjust them to the fashion of the time.

17th century house in Amsterdam
Bed in Museum Our lord in the attic in Amsterdam.

If you want to see what a house looked like in the 17th century, I recommend visiting the Rembrandt Museum or the Museum Our lord in the attic. Though not in the canal belt, both museums have completely renovated the houses in 17th-century style. They are great examples of furnished houses that show people lived in the 17th century.

How to visit an Amsterdam Canal House

Museum Willet-Holthuysen

There are more options to see the interior of an 18th-century canal house. The Museum Willet-Holthuysen is a beautiful double-fronted townhouse on Herengracht. The interior of the canal house is original from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Museum Willet-Holthuyzen.
The ballroom at the Museum Willet-Holthuyzen.

Museum Van Loon

On Keizersgracht 672, the 19th century interior of the Amsterdam regent family Van Loon can be visited. The canal house was built in 1602 by architect Adriaen Dortsman in the sober Dutch Baroque style.

In 1884 Hendrik van Loon bought the house for his son Willem Hendrik as a wedding present. Willem Hendrik and his wife Thora lived there with their two children and staff. The family’s rich history can be gleaned from the large collection of portraits in the museum. Most remarkable is the restored coach house in the garden which can be visited at the Museum Van Loon.

Gardens and coach house at Museum van Loon.

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