Imagine: you climb up into a tower that you pass by every day, but which you are normally never allowed inside. That's exactly the idea behind Open Tower Day. On Saturday, June 13, dozens of towers throughout the city will open their doors, free or for a small fee, so that everyone can see the city from above. Not as a tourist with a day pass, but simply as an Amsterdammer discovering his own city.
The biggest crowd-pleasers are at it again. The A'DAM LOOKOUT in Noord, high above the IJ, offers a view on such days that makes you forget for a moment how busy the city below is. The Rembrandt Tower on the Zuidas, normally purely business, then swings open its doors to anyone who wants to see what the city looks like from such a glass colossus. And the Zuiderkerk in the Center, one of the city's oldest towers, gives visitors a glimpse into a piece of history that you otherwise know only from the outside.
Open Tower Day is organized by Stichting Open The Doors, founded in 2013 by Henri van Poll as chairman. What started with 12 towers in the first edition grew into a city event with as many as 50 towers participating in 2025, during the anniversary edition as part of Amsterdam 750. Approximately 35 of these were actually climbable. The foundation works with the Municipality and cultural funds, as well as private sponsors who make it possible to open up so many towers at once.
What began with 12 towers in the first edition grew into a city event with as many as 50 towers participating in 2025.
That Open Tower Day has grown so much says something about how great the need is to see the city from a different angle. Thousands of visitors per edition prove that. The Open The Doors Foundation is currently looking for a new organizer to continue running the event in the coming years. Whoever takes over this baton also takes over a solid tradition: more than twelve editions, a loyal audience and a program that reaches from North to the Zuidas. Keep an eye on the website for the date of the next edition.