A city built on 11 million wooden piles in a swamp — and made into one of the most beautiful places in the world. Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Russian tsar who came to learn shipbuilding and left with the idea for Saint Petersburg.
Amsterdam is a city that defies nature, and has been doing so for seven hundred years.
Amsterdam stands on 11 million wooden piles driven into marshy ground. Under the central station there are 8,000 of them. Under the Royal Palace on Dam Square — 13,659. Piles of Scandinavian pine will last thousands of years if they do not come into contact with air — wood does not rot underwater. This was understood as far back as the 13th century when the first houses were built. The entire city floats above the bog — and does not sink.
The name "Amsterdam" literally means "dam on the Amstel river." In 1275 the Count of Holland granted a fishing village at this dam freedom from road tolls — this is considered the city's founding date. Three hundred years later Amsterdam had become the trading capital of the world.
Amsterdam has 165 canals and more than 1,200 bridges — more than Venice. The 17th-century canal system is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. People still travel them by boat — not as tourists, but as ordinary city transport. Some Amsterdam residents live on houseboats: there are about 2,500 of them in the city.
Remarkably little is known about Vermeer for so great a painter. Born in Delft in 1632. Lived to 43. Painted approximately 35 to 36 pictures that have survived — and in each one there is something inexplicable. He painted ordinary scenes: a woman reads a letter by a window, a girl with a pearl earring glances over her shoulder, a maidservant pours milk. No mythology, no kings. Only light from the left window — always the left — and silence.
Scholars still debate whether Vermeer used a camera obscura to achieve such precision of light and perspective. Perhaps. But no camera explains why his paintings still stop people in the middle of a museum — and they stand there in silence.
In 1697 the 25-year-old Russian Tsar Peter I came to the Netherlands incognito — under the name Pyotr Mikhailov, a simple carpenter. He wanted to learn shipbuilding with his own hands. For four months he worked in the shipyards of Zaandam and Amsterdam, building ships alongside the workers. The Netherlands astonished him profoundly. Canals instead of streets, drainage systems, cleanliness, order, trade. He noted everything — how dams were built, how swamps were drained, how cities were planned. Back in Russia, he began building a new capital — Saint Petersburg — on the Neva delta, among swamps and islands. Exactly like Amsterdam.
The Rijksmuseum — home to Rembrandt's Night Watch and Vermeer's Milkmaid. Book tickets online in advance. The Van Gogh Museum is nearby — don't miss it. Best way to get around: bicycle, available for hire on every corner.
Herring (raw, with onion) — try it at any street stall. Stroopwafel — place it on a cup of coffee and wait for the caramel to melt. The Anne Frank House at Prinsengracht 263 is a place that must be visited. Quiet, small and very important. Tickets online only, several weeks in advance.