9 Best Sights in Medieval Center, Amsterdam

This tree-filled courtyard is a residential hideaway where women of the Beguine order lived a chaste, spiritual life from the 14th century onward. Number 34 is the oldest house in Amsterdam—one of two remaining wooden houses in the city following 15th-century fires that consumed three-quarters of the city. The small Engelse Hervormde Kerk (English Reformed Church) dates to the 14th century, when it was a place of worship for the Begijnen. After the Alteration of 1578 the church was relinquished to Protestants. When senior Begijn Cornelia Arents died in 1654, she said she'd rather be buried in the gutter than in the (now Protestant) church. Her wish was granted; look for the granite slab and plaque on the wall between the church and lawn.

The main train station of the Dutch capital---there are 11 others---was designed as an architectural statement by P. J. H. Cuypers, who was also famously associated with Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. Although it has many Gothic motifs (including a unique weather vane disguised as a clock in its left tower), it's now considered a landmark of Dutch Neo-Renaissance style. Its construction required the creation of three artificial islands and over 8,600 wooden piles to support it. Completed in 1889, it represented a psychological break with the city's seafaring past, as its erection slowly blocked the view to the IJ River. Another controversy arose from its Gothic detailing, which was considered by uptight Protestants as a tad too Catholic—like Cuypers himself—and earned it the nickname "the French Convent." (Similarly, the Rijksmuseum became "the Bishop's Castle.") If you're visiting the 1e Klas restaurant on Platform 2b, wander down to look at the magnificent golden gate of the Royal Waiting Room. You can't go in unless it's Open Monuments Day (second weekend in September), but if you scan the QR code at the entrance with your smart phone you can get a 360-degree virtual tour—or simply peer through the glass. Amsterdam's main bus station, as well as a host of shops and restaurants, are on the IJ side, in an extension completed in 2017.

The old stock-exchange building is revered as Amsterdam's first modern building and the country's most important piece of 20th-century architecture. Built between 1898 and 1903 by H. P. Berlage, its design became a template for the style of a new century. The new Beurs, with its simple lines and the influence it had on the Amsterdam School architects who followed Berlage, earned him the reputation of being the "Father of Modern Dutch Architecture."

A staunch socialist, Berlage designed the building as a "public palace," a function it truly fulfills today with room for conferences, collaborative workspaces, exhibitions, and events. Or just stop by Bistro Berlage for coffee, lunch, or dinner. There was a major redesign of this former Grand Café in 2017, but you can still admire the stunning symbolist mosaics by Jan Toorop inside. Weather permitting, the new Beursplein terrace is a pleasant place to watch the world go by.

Home to Het Koninklijk Paleis and De Nieuwe Kerk, Dam Square (or just "Dam") is Amsterdam's main square. It traces its roots to the 13th century and the dam built over the Amstel River (hence the city's name, a bastardization of the earlier Aemstelredam). The waters of the Damrak (the continuation of the Amstel) once reached right up to the Dam, with ships and barges sailing to the weigh house. Folks came here to trade, talk, protest---and be executed. In the 17th century, the square was hemmed in by houses and packed with markets. For a taste of that atmosphere, head into the warren of alleys behind the Nieuwe Kerk, with a 1619 proeflokaal (jenever [Dutch gin] tasting house) called De Drie Fleschjes (The Three Small Bottles) on Gravenstraat. In the 19th century, the Damrak was filled in to form the street leading to Centraal Station, and King Louis, Napoléon's brother, demolished the old weigh house in 1808 because it spoiled the view from his bedroom window in the Royal Palace. Today, the Dam is a teeming magnet for celebrations, fairs, street performers, and protests.

This unavoidable street leading up to Centraal Station is still lined with a tawdry assortment of shops, hotels, and tourist traps, but it's slowly improving as part of the city's clean-up efforts. Behind the neon signs some examples of lovely Dutch architecture have emerged after decades of hiding. Damrak and its extension, Rokin, were once the Amstel River, bustling with activity, the piers loaded with fish and other cargo en route to the weigh house at the Dam. They were filled in 1845 and 1883, respectively, and now the only open water that remains is a patch in front of the station that provides mooring for tour boats. Damrak now boasts several renovated buildings, and an underground parking lot for bikes has created space on Beursplein for trees and terraces. The new Beurspassage—a passageway linking Nieuwendijk and Damrak—is a particular highlight thanks to a 4,843-square-foot artwork (the largest in the city) called "Amsterdam Oersoep" or Amsterdam primordial soup. It is an homage to Amsterdam’s canals, featuring glass mosaic, tile, terrazzo, and gold chandeliers composed of bicycle parts.

From the outside, it's a bit hard to believe that these ponderous premises were declaimed by poet and diplomat Constantijn Huygens as the "Eighth Wonder of the World." The palace was built between 1648 and 1665 and was the largest secular building in the world when it was completed. From the inside, the magnificent interior inspires another level of disbelief—that it was actually built as a mere city hall. Golden Age giants like Ferdinand Bol, Govert Flinck, and Jan Lievens were called in to decorate (Rembrandt's sketches were rejected). In the building's Burgerzaal, or public entrance hall, there are two maps inlaid in the marble floor: one with Amsterdam as the center of the world, the other as the center of the universe.

Dutch schoolchildren once had to learn the number of piles (13,659) on which the Royal Palace was built, by using a nifty trick: the days of the year (365) with a 1 before and a 9 after. This number has since changed, because two piles were removed during recent renovations.

The building has remained the Royal Palace ever since King Louis Napoléon (Napoléon's brother) resided here from 1808 to 1810, and it's one of three palaces at which today's Dutch monarch hosts official receptions and state visits. The Palace also hosts exhibitions and displays on the history of the building itself. Official occasions mean opening times can vary.

This beautiful and seemingly tranquil tree-lined square hides a lively and radical past---in the 1960s, the Provo counterculture movement held weekly gatherings around the statue in the center of the square. Journalists and bookworms have long favored its many cafés, and the Atheneum News Center (No. 14–16) and its adjoining bookstore are the city's best places to peruse an international array of literature, magazines, and newspapers. More cultural browsing can be enjoyed at the Spui's book market on Friday and at its art market on Sunday.

The National Monument, a towering white travertine obelisk, was erected in 1956 as a memorial to those who died in World War II. Designed by architect J. J. P. Oud, who thought that De Stijl minimalism was in keeping with the monument's message, it's the focal point for Remembrance Day (May 4), when Dutch losses in wars and peacekeeping missions around the world are commemorated. The monument contains 12 urns: 11 are filled with earth from all the Dutch provinces, and the 12th was meant to contain earth from the former colonies (Indonesia, Suriname, and the Antilles) but was never filled. Oud designed the steps to be used as seating, and today it's still a favored rest spot and a great place to watch the world go by.

Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) is a soaring late-Gothic structure whose tower was never completed because the authorities blew all their money on the city hall (now the Royal Palace) next door. Check out the magnificently sculpted oak pulpit by Albert Vinckenbrinck, constructed after the Great Fire of 1645. It took him 15 years to complete, although there is now a bit missing: the scales from a Lady of Justice were an impulsively generous gift to the Canadians, who helped to liberate Amsterdam. Other features include the unmarked grave of the poet and playwright Van den Vondel (the "Dutch Shakespeare") and Rombout Verhulst's extravagantly sculpted eulogy to naval hero Admiral Michiel de Ruyter (you can peer through a glass to see his actual coffin in the crypt).