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However, a couple of pre-Reformation buildings do remain, including the Houten Huys, at no. 34, whose wooden facade dates from 1477, the oldest in Amsterdam and erected before the city forbade the construction of timber houses as an essential precaution against fire. The Engelse Kerk (English Reformed Church), which takes up one side of the Begijnhof, is of medieval construction too, but it was taken from the Beguines and given to Amsterdam’s English community during the Reformation. Plain and unadorned, the church is of interest for its carefully worked pulpit panels, several of which were designed by a youthful Piet Mondriaan (1872–1944), the leading De Stijl artist – although to see them you’ll have to attend one of its services on Sundays at 10.30am. After they had lost their church, and in keeping with the terms of the Alteratie(see "The formation of the United Provinces"), the Beguines were allowed to celebrate Mass inconspicuously in the clandestine Catholic Begijnhofkapel (Mon 1–6.30pm, Tues–Fri 9am–6.30pm, Sat & Sun 9am–6pm; free), which they established in the house opposite their old church. It’s still used today, a homely little place with some terribly sentimental religious paintings, one of which – to the left of the high altar – depicts the Miracle of the unburnable Host, still celebrated at the Oude Kerk.

The Begijnhof

The Old Centre | The Rokin and Kalverstraat | The Begijnhof |

Beguinages

One result of the urbanization of the Low Countries from the twelfth century onwards was the establishment of beguinages (begijnhoven in Dutch, béguinages in French) in almost every city and town. These were semi-secluded communities, where widows and unmarried women – the Beguines (Begijns) – lived together, the better to do pious acts, especially caring for the sick. In construction, beguinages follow the same general plan with several streets of whitewashed, terraced, brick cottages hidden away behind walls and gates and surrounding a central garden and chapel. Beguine communities were different from convents in so far as the inhabitants did not have to take vows and had the right to return to the secular world if they chose. In the Netherlands, the Beguine movement pretty much died out with the Reformation.

The Old Centre | The Rokin and Kalverstraat |

The Amsterdams Historisch Museum

As you emerge from the east side of the Begijnhof, turn left onto narrow Gedempte Begijnensloot and it’s 100m or so to the Schuttersgalerij – the Civic Guard Gallery. Here, an assortment of huge group portraits of the Amsterdam militia, ranging from serious-minded paintings of the 1540s through to lighter affairs from the seventeenth century, is displayed for free in a glassed-in passageway. They are interesting paintings – the pick are those by Nicolaes Pickenoy (1588–1650) – but the finest militia painting by a long chalk, Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, is exhibited in the Rijksmuseum.

The Schuttersgalerij is part of the Amsterdams Historisch Museum (entrances at Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 357 & Kalverstraat 92, Mon–Fri 10am–5pm, Sat & Sun 11am–5pm; €10; www.ahm.nl), which occupies the smartly restored but rambling seventeenth-century buildings of the municipal orphanage. The museum follows the city’s development with a scattering of artefacts and a host of paintings from the thirteenth century onwards; the building is full of levels and corridors, but the arrows lead you through in a reasonably coherent way, and the labelling is in English as well as Dutch.

Maps and paintings punctuate the galleries and record the growth of the city, starting with an electronic map showing the city’s evolution from the draining of the Amsel in 1274 to the present day. Beyond here are a number of old views of Amsterdam back before the Golden Age, of which Cornelis Anthonisz’s 1538 Bird’s Eye View of Amsterdam in Room 4, the oldest surviving plan of the city, stands out. There are paintings illustrating the country’s former maritime prowess in Room 5, and in Room 6 Berckheyde’s “depiction” of the new town hall hangs opposite a model of the building