Amsterdam Canal Ring โ€” canal
Image by Rianne_SchillerMclean from Pixabay

Amsterdam Canal Ring

Amsterdamse grachten

  • 2 min read
  • 52.365ยฐ N 4.888ยฐ E

Interesting facts

  • Before the expansion of 1613, the Singel served as Amsterdam's defensive city moat from about 1480 to 1585.
  • The Keizersgracht is the widest of the three main canals, while the Prinsengracht, named after the Prince of Orange, is the longest.
  • Remarkably, the canal ring was fully connected to the city sewer system only in 1987.
  • Every year between 12,000 and 15,000 bicycles are fished out of Amsterdam's canals.
  • Peter the Great lodged on the Herengracht, John Adams on the Keizersgracht, and Daniel Fahrenheit also lived along the Keizersgracht.
  • The Anne Frank House stands on the Prinsengracht, beside the Westerkerk, the tallest church in Amsterdam.
  • The Homomonument, a memorial to gay men and lesbians persecuted for their sexuality, faces the Keizersgracht near the Westerkerk.
  • The UNESCO-protected area covers about 198 hectares, ringed by a buffer zone of about 482 hectares.
  • Amsterdam celebrated the 400th anniversary of the canal ring in 2013, four centuries after digging began.
  • Since 2018, the houseboats moored along the canals have been required to connect to the city sewage system.

Why it is worth it

The canal ring of Amsterdam is one of the great pieces of planned city-making in Europe. In 1613 the city began digging a set of concentric waterways around its medieval core, and three of them, the Herengracht, the Keizersgracht and the Prinsengracht, became the grand arcs that still define the centre. The north-western sector was finished by about 1625; the southern and eastern arcs followed after 1664. The result was not a picturesque accident but a deliberate plan for a merchant city: water for transport and drainage, parcels of land for houses and warehouses, radial streets and smaller canals tying the rings together. In 2010 the seventeenth-century canal ring was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Its beauty lies in repetition and variation. Tall, narrow brick houses stand shoulder to shoulder along the quays, each with its own gable, stepped, bell-shaped or neck-shaped, many with a hoisting beam at the top: staircases were too steep and narrow for furniture or merchandise, so everything was winched up the front and taken in through the windows, and some facades lean forward slightly so that loads would not scrape them. Around 1,550 buildings along the main canals are protected monuments. On the Herengracht between the Leidsestraat and the Vijzelstraat, the stretch called the Golden Bend, the merchant elite built double-width mansions with deep gardens and coach houses behind. Elsewhere the scale is humbler and more intimate, on narrower cross-canals lined with modest houses and former warehouses.

The whole city is laced with water: more than 100 kilometres of canals, around 90 islands and some 1,500 bridges. One small experiment rewards patience: at the corner where the Reguliersgracht, dug in 1664, meets the Herengracht, a line of seven arched bridges can be seen one behind the other, best from a boat low on the water. Early morning, when the water is still and the facades lie reflected in it, shows the ring at its most beautiful.

Getting there

The canal ring wraps around the historic centre of Amsterdam, a short walk from Amsterdam Centraal station. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) lies about 10 km from the centre, and trains reach Amsterdam Centraal in about a quarter of an hour. The canals are best seen on foot or from one of the many tour boats.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in North Holland 9The Most Beautiful Places in the Kingdom of the Netherlands 25The Most Beautiful Canals 8The Greatest Engineering Wonders 271

From the encyclopaedia

Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, has more than 100 kilometers (62ย mi) of grachten (canals), about 90 islands and 1,500 bridges. The three main canals, dug in the 17th century during the Dutch Golden Age, form concentric belts around the city, known as the Grachtengordel. Alongside the main canals are 1,550 monumental buildings. The 17th-century canal ring area, including the Prinsengracht, Keizersgracht, Herengracht and Jordaan, were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010, contributing to Amsterdam's fame as the "Venice of the North". However, Amsterdam has the highest number of individual canals in Europe, and has many more bridges than Venice even in the old center alone.

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