Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [64]
The Old Jewish Quarter and Eastern docklands | The Oosterdok |
The Dutch East India Company
Founded in 1602, the Dutch East India Company (the VOC – Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) was the chief pillar of Amsterdam’s wealth for nearly two hundred years. Its high-percentage profits came from importing spices into Europe, and to secure its supplies the company’s ships ventured far and wide, establishing trading links with India, Sri Lanka, Indo-China, Malaya, China and Japan, though modern-day Indonesia was always the main event. Predictably, the company had a cosy relationship with the merchants who steered the Dutch government; the company was granted a trading monopoly in all the lands east of the Cape of Good Hope and could rely on the warships of the powerful Dutch Navy if they got into difficulty. Neither was their business purely mercantile; the East India Company exercised unlimited military, judicial and political powers in those trading posts it established, the first of which was Batavia in Java in 1619.
In the 1750s, the Dutch East India Company went into decline, partly because the British expelled them from most of the best trading stations, but mainly because the company had borrowed too heavily. The French army of occupation had little time for the privileges and pretensions of the VOC, abolishing its ruling council and ultimately dissolving the company in 1799.
The Old Jewish Quarter and Eastern docklands | The Oosterdok |
Entrepotdok
At the northern end of Plantage Kerklaan, just beyond the Verzetsmuseum, a footbridge leads over to Entrepotdok, on the nearest – and most interesting – of the Oosterdok islands. Old brick warehouses stretch along much of the quayside, distinguished by their spout gables, multiple doorways and overhead pulleys. Built by the Dutch East India Company in the eighteenth century, they were once part of the largest warehouse complex in continental Europe, a gigantic customs-free zone established for goods in transit. On the ground floor, above each main entrance, every warehouse sports the name of a town or island; goods for onward transportation were stored in the appropriate warehouse until there were enough to fill a boat or barge. The warehouses have been tastefully converted into offices and apartments, a fate they share with the central Dutch East India Company compound, whose modest brickwork culminates in a chunky Neoclassical entrance at the west end of Entrepotdok on Kadijksplein.
The Old Jewish Quarter and Eastern docklands | The Oosterdok |
The Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum
The Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum (Netherlands Maritime Museum; closed until further notice; www.scheepvaartmuseum.nl) occupies the old arsenal of the Dutch Navy, a vast sandstone structure built on the Oosterdok beside Kattenburgerplein in the 1650s. It’s underpinned by no fewer than 18,000 wooden piles driven deep into the riverbed at enormous expense, a testament to the nautical ambitions of the Dutch elite. The building’s four symmetrical facades are dour and imposing despite the odd stylistic flourish, principally some quaint dormer windows and Neoclassical pediments, and they surround a central, cobbled courtyard under which was kept a copious supply of freshwater to supply the ships. It’s the perfect location for a Maritime Museum and when it reopens, probably in 2012, it promises to be one of the city’s key attractions.
The Old Jewish Quarter and Eastern docklands | The Oosterdok |
ARCAM, NEMO and the Bibliotheek
Set on the Prins Hendrikkade waterfront is ARCAM (Tues–Sat 1–5pm; free; www.arcam.nl), the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture, housed in a distinctive aluminium and glass structure designed by the Dutch architect René van Zuuk. The design was much praised at the time of its construction, but the building does look rather disconcertingly like the head of a golf club. Inside, a small gallery area is used for an imaginative programme of temporary exhibitions on contemporary architecture