Pintohuis (Pinto House)

Pintohuis (Pinto House) Review

Scholar and grandee Isaac de Pinto escaped the Inquisition in Portugal to become a significant investor in the Dutch East Indies Company in Amsterdam. He bought this Italian Renaissance-style house in 1651. It was grandly renovated by his son, together with architect Elias Bouwman, in the 1680s. In the 1960s it was almost demolished so that the street could be widened, but activist squatters saved the building. The interior is lushly decorated, particularly the painted ceilings by 17th-century master Jacob de Wit, with more recent additions by the entrance: spot the little cherub reading a book, a reference to the building's current manifestation as a public library.