Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [26]
The Old Centre | Dam Square |
Magna Plaza
Behind the Royal Palace, on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, you can’t miss the old neo-Gothic post office of 1899, now converted into the Magna Plaza shopping mall (Mon 11am–7pm, Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat 10am–7pm, Thurs 10am–9pm, Sun noon–7pm; www.magnaplaza.nl), a grand affair that makes an attractive setting for the numerous clothing chains that now inhabit its red-brick interior. It certainly was a great place to buy stamps, but the post office building was never very popular despite its whimsical embellishments, which continued the town’s tradition of plonking towers on every major building, partly out of civic pride and partly to contribute to the city’s spiky skyline. The architect responsible, a certain C.G. Peters, took a surprising amount of flack for his creation, which was mocked as “postal Gothic”.
The Old Centre | Dam Square |
The Nieuwe Kerk
Vying for importance with the Royal Palace is the adjacent Nieuwe Kerk (daily 10am–6pm; €10; 020/638 6909, www.nieuwekerk.nl). Despite its name (literally “new church”), it’s an early fifteenth-century structure built in a late flourish of the Gothic style, with a forest of pinnacles and high, slender gables. Badly damaged by fire on several occasions, and unceremoniously stripped of most of its fittings by the Calvinists, the interior is a hangar-like affair of sombre demeanour, whose sturdy compound pillars soar up to support the wooden vaulting of the ceiling. Among a scattering of decorative highlights, look out for an extravagant, finely carved mahogany pulpit that was fifteen years in the making, a cleverly worked copper chancel screen and a flashy, Baroque organ case.
There’s also the spectacularly vulgar tomb of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter (1607–76), complete with trumpeting angels, conch-blowing Neptunes and cherubs. In a long and illustrious naval career de Ruyter trounced, in succession, the Spaniards, the Swedes, the English and the French, and his rise from deck hand to Admiral-in-Chief is the stuff of national legend. His most famous exploit was a raid up the River Thames to Medway in 1667 and the seizure of the Royal Navy’s flagship, The Royal Charles; the subsequent Dutch crowing almost drove Charles II to distraction. De Ruyter was buried here with full military honours and the church is still used for state occasions; the coronations of queens Wilhelmina, Juliana and, in 1980, Beatrix, were all held here. After the church, pop into the adjoining ’t Nieuwe Kafé(see "Cafés and tearooms"), which occupies one of the old ecclesiastical lean-tos and serves excellent coffee and delicious lunches and snacks.
The Old Centre |
The Rokin and Kalverstraat
Sandwiched between the Singel and Rokin, the southern part of the Old Centre is one of Amsterdam’s busiest districts, mostly on account of pedestrianized Kalverstraat, a hectic shopping street. Taken as a whole, it’s not a particularly engaging area, but it does have its moments, most enjoyably in the cloistered tranquillity of the Begijnhof and among the bars and cafés of the nearby Spui. There is also a brace of museums – the excellent Amsterdams Historisch Museum and the moderately diverting archeological collection of the Allard Pierson Museum.
The Old Centre | The Rokin and Kalverstraat |
The Rokin
The Rokin picks up where the Damrak leaves off, cutting south in a wide sweep that follows the former course of the River Amstel. The Rokin was the business centre of the nineteenth-century city, and although it has lost much of its prestige it is still flanked by an attractive medley of architectural styles, incorporating everything from grandiose nineteenth-century mansions to more utilitarian modern buildings.
One initial highlight as you stroll south is the handsome Art-Nouveau-meets-Art-Deco Marine Insurance building at no. 69; others are the much earlier canal house at no. 83 and the attractive stone mansion at no. 91. Across the street, at no. 92, is the Hajenius cigar shop with its flashy gilt interior,