Almost everyone who walks across Dam Square looks straight at it, but few people realize what lies behind that facade. The Royal Palace is not a museum piece you admire from a distance. It is a working palace, the place where state visits are received, gala dinners are held and awards are given. At the same time, the door is open to ordinary visitors, which is precisely what makes it interesting.
Architect Jacob van Campen designed the building in the Dutch Classical style, and between 1648 and 1665 it was built in Bentheimer sandstone. The facade is strict and rectilinear, the proportions exactly right. On the roof is a tower, and on top of that tower is Atlas, who carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders. That image is the silhouette you see from all over downtown. What you don't see: the entire structure rests on more than 13,659 wooden poles, driven deep into Amsterdam's soil. If that was possible in the 17th century, you can understand why the building is still there after 375 years.
Inside, the Civic Hall is the centerpiece. A huge central hall with marble floor maps of the world, designed at a time when Amsterdam was the trading center of the world. The halls around it are decorated with 17th-century paintings and sculptures, as well as furniture from the Napoleonic period. For from 1808 to 1813, the building served as the French imperial palace, when Napoleon installed his brother Louis as king of Holland. Those five years left their mark on the interior.
The building rests on more than 13,659 wooden poles, driven deep into the Amsterdam soil, and after 375 years it still stands.
The building stands in the middle of Dam Square, surrounded by streetcars, tourists and the hustle and bustle of the city center. But as soon as you step inside, that disappears. Thick walls, high ceilings, and the quiet presence of something that has stood for more than three centuries. Not just as a building, but as a place where the city and the country meet. Jacob van Campen built a town hall for a city at the height of its power. That it still stands today, and is still in use, says it all.