I would love to take you on a historical tour through Amsterdam. We will follow the traces of history that can still be found in the city today. I will tell you about the development of the city and how its inhabitants have shaped it.
Amsterdam 750
Amsterdam is getting ready for its 750th birthday in 2025. On the 27 October 1275 the count of Holland mentioned a small settlement on the Amstel river and its people for the first time. Count Floris V granted them the freedom to travel through the county of Holland without paying taxes. This privilege is seen as the basis for Amsterdam’s rise and bloom as the trade superpower in the 17th century. From 1300 to 1700 the city built its (in)famous trade network and grew from 1000 to 200.000 inhabitants, absorbing many customs from near and afar. Walking through the historic center of Amsterdam this history is never far.
In this walk I will take you on a journey through time. From the Dam – the very dam in the river where the first inhabitants lived – we follow the traces of the urban expansions. We pass by the facades of buildings as Sweelinck, Spinoza and Rembrandt saw them. We cross canals dug by the generations that build the city. We look for the remains of low and high culture, the rich and the poor, slavery and freedom.
