Pictures of Amsterdam in the Netherlands

Amsterdam - city of history

Amsterdam, a city of history. Pictures of a beautiful city of Western Europe. Amsterdam is known for its many canals and 1200 bridges. You will find pictures of beautiful houses and traditional buildings. Good trip to the Netherlands and Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, although the government as well as most of the national institutions sit in The Hague. On the basis of figures for the year 2017, the municipality of Amsterdam has more than 850 000 inhabitants, called Amstellodamois, which makes it the most populated Dutch municipality. It is located in the heart of the Amsterdam region, with a population of approximately 1,350,000. The urban area, which has more than 2,400,000 residents, is itself part of a conurbation called Randstad with 7,100,000 inhabitants. The city is the largest in North Holland, but is not the capital of the province, the latter being Haarlem, located 19 kilometers west of Amsterdam.

The name of the town comes from the old Dutch name Amstelredamme evoking the origins of the city: the dike (Dam) on the Amstel. Small fishing village in the twelfth century, the city experienced a very strong growth in the Middle Ages to the point of becoming one of the main ports of the world during the Dutch Golden Age. The district of De Wallen is the oldest part of the city, which develops around a concentric network of semicircular canals connected by perpendicular channels, forming a "spider's web". In the center of the old town lies the Dam Square, the royal palace of Amsterdam, built in the seventeenth century, symbol of the importance of the city. William I was his residence in 1815. Since July 2010, the district of Grachtengordel, delimited by the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht, is on the list of World Heritage of UNESCO. In this area is the famous beguinage of Amsterdam, courtyard with trees and lined with old houses - the oldest dating from around 1528 - home to an Anglican chapel. © Pictures of Emmanuel Buchot