81 Best Sights in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam's oldest building has evolved over many centuries to look as it does today. What began as a wooden chapel in the 13th century was built up to a hall church and then a cross basilica between 1366 and 1566 (and fully restored between 1955 and 2013). Prior to the Reformation, the Oude Kerk was known as "the living room," because peddlers displayed their goods in the church and beggars slept there. It was violently looted during the Reformation and stripped of its altars and images of saints—although the looters did leave the 14th-century paintings still visible on its wooden roof, as well as the Virgin Mary stained-glass windows that had been set in place in 1550. The famed Vater-Müller organ was installed in 1726. Don't miss the carved choir stalls that illustrate proverbs relating to cardinal sins, among other things. Within this open, atmospheric space, there's a gravestone for Rembrandt's first wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh, and also for Kiliaen van Rensselaer, one of the Dutch founders of what is now New York. Outside, embedded in the sidewalk by the door, is a bronze plaque of hand cupping a naked breast; it's one of a series of pieces of art anonymously placed throughout Amsterdam by an artist in the 1990s. Today, the Oude Kerk is as much an exhibition space as a place of worship, hosting top-notch modern art shows. Its carillon is played every Tuesday at 2 and every Saturday at 4—the best place to listen is the bridge in front of the church.

Landmarked by its now-famous pair of chiseled spectacles set over the Oudezijds Achterburgwal pediment—a sweet reference to old age—this passage led to an Oudemannenhuis, or pensioners' house, founded in 1602. Today bikes (not canes) are in evidence here, as this former almshouse is now part of the University of Amsterdam. One charming relic from its 18th-century days is the covered walkway, which was once lined with traders selling luxury items, whose rents helped subsidize the elderly. Adorned with red shutters, the stalls now house an array of antiquarian booksellers. Atop the Kloveniersburgwal end stands a group of allegorical figures, sculpted by Anthonie Ziesenis in 1786, representing Mercy with the attributes of Abundance (a horn), Enlightenment (a lamp), and Wisdom (a book) flanked by Old Age and Poverty.

Just 9 km (5 miles) south of Amsterdam (about a 45-minute bike ride), the village of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel is a perfect little bike trip out of the city along the Amstel. Pick up the river opposite the Stopera—note that the left bank is quieter, and you can bike past rowers, fishermen, cows, and De Zwaan windmill, with a good view over the water of the Riekermolen windmill where Rembrandt sketched. The village, when you get here, includes quaint churches; the 1614 Portuguese Jewish Cemetery, where Spinoza's family is buried; and the Museum Ouder-Amstel, with exhibits on the surrounding area. If you return down the other side of the river, you'll pass a couple of imposing 17th-century summer houses, including the Wester-Amstel ( Amsteldijk-Noord 55, open April through October) with an outside sculpture garden.

Inspired by Jerusalem's Temple of Solomon, Elias Bouman designed this noted synagogue between 1671 and 1675 for the Sephardic community, the first Jews to settle in the Netherlands. They were descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews—Sepharad is Hebrew for the Iberian peninsula—escaping the Inquisition or forced conversion to Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries. When it was completed, it was the largest synagogue in Europe, and its spare, elegantly proportioned wood interior has remained virtually unchanged through the centuries. It is still magically illuminated by hundreds of candles in immense candelabra during services. The buildings around the synagogue house the world-famous Ets Haim (Tree of Life) library, the oldest still-functioning Jewish library in the world.

This stunning park was built by and named after noted city benefactor Samuel Sarphati (1813–66), whose statue graces the central fountain. It has undulating paths among the trees, duck ponds, and expanses of grass, and though not very large, it's the perfect place to picnic with everything you picked up at the Albert Cuypmarkt. If you have little ones, there's a wonderful sandpit/playground on the northwest side, while a nature playground was added for bigger kids in the summer of 2020 on the southeast side.

With its extravagantly phantasmagoric lead-roof detail spilling over various sculpted sea horses, boat anchors, sea gods (Neptune and his four wives), dolphins, and even shoals of fish, this is one of Amsterdam's most delightful early 20th-century structures. Built in the 1910s with a suitably prow-shape front, it was used as the headquarters for the major shipping firms operating in Java and the Spice Islands during the final Dutch colonial years. Today it's the five-star Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam. Twentieth-century master architects Piet Kramer, Johan van der Mey, and Michel de Klerk all contributed to the design of the building; their structure was one of the opening salvos by the fantastic Amsterdam School. After you admire all the ornamentation on the facade, amble around the sides to take in the busts of noted explorers, such as Barentsz and Mercator, along with patterned brickwork and strutting iron tracery. Wander inside to check out the design of the Seven Seas restaurant and have a drink at the classically restored bar. You can book a private tour of the building and its lavish interiors (Sunday at 11:30, in combination with lunch, via Museum Het Schip  www.hetschip.com).

Amsterdam's only surviving defense tower began life around 1487 as the end point of the city wall. The term schreier suggests the Dutch word for wailing and as lore would have it, the "Weeping Tower" was where women came to cry when their sailor husbands left for sea and to cry again when they did not return (there's a commemorative stone from 1569 of a woman and a boat on the Gelderskade side). However, the word schreier actually comes from an Old Dutch term for "sharp," and because the old city wall made a sharp corner here, this is a more accurate derivation for the tower's name. It's also famous as the point from which Henry Hudson set sail to America. A plaque on the building tells you that he sailed on behalf of the Dutch East India Company to find a shorter route to the East Indies. In his failure, he came across Canada's Hudson Bay and later—continuing his unlucky streak—the New York harbor and the Hudson River. He eventually landed at what is now Manhattan and named it New Amsterdam. The attached Café de Schreierstoren has a lovely view and serves apple pie, pancakes, veal croquettes, jenever, and other local delights. 

The architect A. C. Bleijs designed this Catholic church with its large dome, twin steeples, and colorful stained-glass windows as a replacement for all the clandestine churches that operated during the Reformation. After the Oude Kerk and the Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic) chapel, this church, completed in 1887, became the third (and probably final) Sint-Nicolaas church in Amsterdam. Saint Nicholas, the all-purpose patron saint of children, thieves, prostitutes, sailors, and the City of Amsterdam, transforms into Sinterklaas in mid-November, when he is popularly said to arrive from Spain on a steamboat with his helper Piet (formerly Black Pete). The eve of his birthday on December 6 is celebrated as a family feast when everyone exchanges presents and poems. The church hosts a Choral evensong on Saturday at 5 and a Gregorian chant vesper service on Sunday at 5, September through June.

Established in 1848, the city's archives comprise millions of maps, drawings, prints, books, photographs, and film about Amsterdam: there are a staggering 50 km (30 miles) worth, making it the largest municipal archive in the world. Highlights—300 of the "most attractive, unusual, valuable, and moving" items—are on permanent display in the Treasury, former bank vaults that look like the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh. The epic checkerboard building, completed in 1926 and named in honor of its theosophist architect Karel de Bazel, is also fascinating and infused with its creator's religious beliefs. In theosophy, a building is an art form that can express a higher message using mathematical principles to achieve total harmony. Have deep thoughts over lunch in the café or browse the excellent on-site bookstore, which sells just about every available Amsterdam-relevant publication. Special exhibitions are usually also excellent.

As family home to the two Trip brothers, who made their fortune in the arms trade during the 17th-century Golden Age, this noted house's buckshot-gray exterior and various armament motifs—including mortar-shape chimneys—designed by Justus Vingboons, are easily explained. But the Corinthian-columned facade actually covers two symmetrical buildings (the dividing wall is positioned behind the middle windows), one for each brother, making it the widest residence (at 72 feet) in Amsterdam. From 1817 to 1885 it housed the national museum or Rijksmuseum and is now the home of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Be sure to look across the canal to No. 26, the white building topped with golden sphinxes and dated 1696, which is known as the "Little Trip House." The story goes that Mr. Trip's coachman remarked that he would be happy with a house as wide as the Trippenhuis door. By way of response, Mr. Trip is alleged to have built just that with the leftover bricks. In reality, the domicile was constructed six decades after the Trip mansion, after both of the brothers had already died, possibly as a way to squeeze a house into an existing alleyway. There are a few other very narrow houses in Amsterdam, too: the narrowest rear gable is at Singel 7 at only 3 feet wide, and the building on Oude Hoogstraat 22 is only 7 feet wide and 19 feet deep.

The country's largest ethnographic museum was first built to educate the Dutch about their colonial history in the East and West Indies, but today it excels in hands-on exhibits covering all non-Western cultures. A gorgeous tiered atrium is rich with wood, marble, and gilt, and displays many, many pieces of antiquity, art, and musical instruments made accessible through workshops and in playful, simulated villages and bazaars, which convey the full sensory experience of life in the former Dutch Indies, the Middle East, India, Africa, and Latin America. There's also a park-facing patio where you can enjoy globally inspired food from the café.

At the Tropenmuseum Junior, children can experience other cultures through programs involving art, dance, song, and sometimes cooking. There are weekend activities such as drawing, building, and crafts for toddlers and preschoolers and their parents in the Kartini Wing. For preschoolers and over, there are special children's routes through the museum and events on Wednesday afternoon and holidays. Most children's activities are in Dutch.

From May 14, 1940, to May 5, 1945, the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany, and this museum looks at the population's response—who resisted and how. All forms of resistance are covered: strikes, forging documents, hiding and escape (such as the Dutch-Paris line), armed resistance, and espionage. Personal documents, touching personal stories, and sound fragments offer a rich context that not only conveys what occupied life really felt like but also challenges visitors to consider their own behavior and choices today. The Resistance Museum Junior focuses on the stories of four eyewitnesses: Eva, Henk, Jan, and Nelly, who were between 9 and 14 years old during the war (the same age group as the target audience). The children's museum gives the concept of "resistance" a positive twist, using examples from World War II to make kids aware of the importance of mutual respect, freedom, the fragility of democracy, and their own responsibility in dealing with discrimination and persecution. Displays also show how some of today's main Dutch newspapers and magazines, like Het Parool (The Password) and Vrij Nederland (Free Netherlands), began as illegal underground newsletters.

On sunny days, Amsterdam's "green lung" is the most densely populated section of the city. Vondelpark is the place where sun is worshipped, joints are smoked, beer is quaffed, picnics are luxuriated over, bands are grooved to, dogs are walked, balls are kicked, and lanes are biked, jogged, and rollerbladed on. By evening, the park has invariably evolved into one large outdoor café. The great thing about this park is that, as long as you stay relaxed and go with the flow, you can dress however, hang however, and do whatever. (For years, a mysterious man danced around the park on 1970s silver roller skates, wearing silver body paint and a silver G-string—even in winter—with shaved legs and chest, headphones, and a silver cap with propeller, and nobody batted an eyelid; his spirit lives on today.)

The Vondelpark was laid out in 1865 as a 25-acre "walking and riding park" for residents of the affluent neighborhood rising up around it. It soon expanded to 120 acres and was renamed after Joost van den Vondel, the "Dutch Shakespeare." Landscaped in the informal English style, the park is an irregular patchwork of copses, ponds, children's playgrounds, and fields linked by winding pathways. The park's focal point is the open-air theater, where there is free summer entertainment Friday to Sunday.

Over the years a range of sculptural and architectural pieces have been installed in the park. Picasso even donated a sculpture, The Fish, on the park's centenary in 1965, which stands in the middle of a field to deter football players from using it as a goalpost. On the west side of the park, you can stop in at the Neoclassical-era Hollandsche Manege (the oldest riding school in the Netherlands; Vondelstraat 140), inspired by the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Visit the on-site museum (€12.50) and enjoy a cup of tea in the foyer bar, which overlooks the riding arena where classes are regularly held.

This rather touristy strip of hostels, bars, and coffeeshops began life as one of the original dikes along the Amstel. It's where the famous 17th-century poet Joost van den Vondel did business from his hosiery shop at No. 101, and where Mozart's father tried to unload tickets for his son's concerts in the area's upscale bars. It entered a decline in the 17th century when the proprietors decamped for fancier digs on the Canal Ring; sailors (and the businesses that catered to them) started to fill in the gaps. In the 19th century, the street devolved, along with its extension, Nes, into the city's primary debauchery zone. Today, there's an active gay scene here: look out for the rainbow and black-and-blue flags.

Amsterdam's most famous flea market was once an area bordered by the Leprozengracht (Leper's Canal) and Houtgracht (Wood Canal), which often took the brunt of an overflowing Amstel River; the area also housed only the poorest of the city's Jews. In 1893 it became the daily market for the surrounding neighborhood—a necessity because Jews were not allowed to own shops at the time. It became a meeting place whose chaos of wooden carts and general vibrancy disappeared along with the Jewish population during World War II. And yet it still provides a colorful glimpse into Amsterdam's particular brand of pragmatic sales techniques. The market is currently being renovated, but remains open to the public.

The former headquarters of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) has major historical significance. Although not as sovereign as the Dutch East India Company, it was essentially given free rein to trade on Africa's west coast, the Americas, and all the islands of the West Pacific and New Guinea. The WIC also oversaw the infamous export of 275,000 slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean in the 17th century. In these rooms, the decision was made to buy Manhattan for the equivalent of 60 guilders. The building is now largely used as an events space; but there's also a wonderful wine bar, and you can visit the courtyard to see the statue of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch director-general of Nieuw-Nederland---today better known as New York City.

There are over 2,500 houseboats in Amsterdam, including one especially for cats—the Poezenboot (Cat Boat) sanctuary opposite Singel 38. At the Houseboat Museum, a converted 1914-built freighter, the Hendrika Maria, provides a glimpse into this unique lifestyle.

Few streets have had a longer or more torrid history than Zeedijk (it means "sea dike," as it sounds), which has been around since Amsterdam began life as a boggy hamlet. In the 15th and 16th centuries, its businesses serviced the lonely, thirsty sailors disembarking from the ships of the East India Company. By the 1970s, though, most of the traffic Zeedijk saw was drug traffic, and tourists were advised to avoid the neighborhood at night because of the junkies and high crime rate. Since its renovation, Zeedijk has become a pleasant street, with plenty of restaurants, pubs, and shops, and it's a very nice place to wander.

There are several interesting sights along the Zeedijk. The entrance of 15th-century Sint Olofskapel (St. Olaf Chapel) sports a sandstone sculpture by Hendrick de Keyser: grains growing out of a supine skeleton with a Latin inscription meaning "Hope for a better life." It's now an events venue. Across the street at No. 1 is one of only two houses with timber facades left in the city. Dating to around 1550, a persistent (and untrue) folkloric tale tells that In't Aepjen (In the Monkeys) provided bedding to destitute sailors if they promised to return from their next voyage with a monkey. Alas, a local historian revealed in 2019 there never was an inn here, though it's first inhabitant, Jan Jansz 'int Aepjen was a trader in hides and skins. Café 't Mandje at No. 65 was the first openly gay bar, run by legendary lesbian biker chick Bet van Beeren (1902–67). It reopened in 2008, with much of the original interior restored, complete with the trophy ties Bet snipped off customers. The Chinese community dominates the end of the street, where street signs are in Dutch and Mandarin. There are around 10,000 Chinese in Amsterdam, a 20th-century presence much younger than the Dutch in China (Taiwan came under Dutch control in 1624). One highlight is the Fo Guang Shan He Hua Buddhist temple (No. 118), the largest Buddhist temple in Europe constructed in the traditional style. Chinatown extends into Geldersekade and Nieuwmarkt, and every year there are small (but colorful) Chinese New Year celebrations.

Gorgeous enough to have inspired both Sir Christopher Wren and Claude Monet, this famous church was built between 1601 and 1614 by Hendrick de Keyser, one of the most prolific architects of Holland's Golden Age (he also chose to be buried here). It was one of the earliest churches built in Amsterdam in the Renaissance style and was the first in the city to be built for the (Protestant) Dutch Reformed Church. During the Dutch famine of 1944 (known as the Hunger Winter), it served as a morgue. The church's hallowed floors, under which three of Rembrandt's children are buried, are now rented out as an events and exhibitions venue. The church tower—a soaring accumulation of columns, brackets, and balustrades—is one of the most glorious exclamation points in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam has a rich history of tobacco trading and smoking, and this quirky museum has an enormous collection of items. There are nearly 30,000 pipes and pipe-related objects, including prehistoric pipes, artistically modeled and skillfully painted smoking gear from all eras and from around the globe, pipe maker tools, and tobacco wrappers and vignettes. There's a pipe shop on-site, if you're inspired to purchase something, as well as a library in the Amsterdam Pipe Shop at the same address.

By the beginning of the 18th century, Amsterdam had a virtual monopoly in the diamond industry in Europe, so when diamonds were discovered in South Africa in 1869, there was a windfall for Amsterdam's Jewish communities, a third of whom worked in the diamond trade. Built in 1879, Gassan Diamonds was once home to the Boas diamond-polishing factory, the largest in the world, where 357 diamond-polishing machines processed around 8,000–10,000 carats of rough diamonds per week. Today, Gassan offers polishing and grading demonstrations and free hour-long tours, in more than 27 languages, of the building and its glittering collection of diamonds and jewelry.