5.10.11

Where was the former city hall of Amsterdam....?

As some of you may know, the big building on the Dam now known as the Palace, used to be the city hall of Amsterdam. but for many years, Amsterdam had a smaller city hall that looked like this:


In the book by Pieter Vlaardingerbroek we can read that a visit of Maria de Medici in combination with increased self-awareness led to the decision to build a new city hall. And this new city hall soon became known as the 8th world wonder, as it was so huge and full of grandeur. Quite a number of buildings were taken down to be able to build the new city hall, so that leaves us with the question: where was the old city hall?

Well, luckily the book answers that question as well. It contains a map that shows the proper location.



So we can see that the city hall was actually close to the kalverstraat (on the left). If you draw a line from the kalverstraat to nieuwendijk, you would find the city hall right on that line.