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Het Koninklijk Paleis Review

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Het Koninklijk Paleis

Address: Dam, Centrum, Amsterdam | Map It
Phone: 020/620-4060
www.koninklijkhuis.nl

Royal Palace

Category: Castles/Palaces
Location: Old City Center

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Fodor's Review:

From the outside, it is somewhat hard to believe that this gray-stained building was once called the "Eighth Wonder of the World." It was built between 1648 and 1665 as the largest nonreligious building on the planet. From the inside, its magnificent interior inspires another brand of disbelief: this palace was actually built as a mere city hall. Golden age artistic greats such as Ferdinand Bol, Govert Flinck (Rembrandt's sketches were rejected), and Jan Lievens were called in for the decorating. In the building's public entrance hall, the Burgerzaal, the world was placed quite literally at one's feet: two maps inlaid in the marble floor show Amsterdam as the center of the world, and as the center of the universe.

The building has remained the Royal Palace ever since Napoléon's brother squatted there in 1808. Today Queen Beatrix stays here occasionally. She required a few years to warm back up to Amsterdam after her wedding in 1966 was disrupted by a radical student group throwing smoke bombs at her carriage and in 1980, her coronation was derailed by riots on the Dam.

Cost: EUR
Open: The palace is closed for renovations until sometime in 2008.

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