Town hall in the Dam Square (1648/65), now Royal Palace

Introduction

The old medieval town hall, predecessor of the current Royal Palace, depicted by Pieter Saenredam (collection Rijksmuseum)

There were several good reasons to replace the old Gothic town hall. The administration of the rapidly growing city had outgrown its accommodation. Moreover, the condition of the medieval building had deteriorated to the point where it became dangerous to enter the premises. A new, larger town hall was badly needed. While the construction of the new town hall was still in progress, the old one burned down.

Apart from the practical reasons for embarking on the project of building a new town hall, the growing self-confidence of the city, which mainly resulted from the successful negotiations of the Münster Peace Treaty in 1648, needed an outlet. A project which comprised the planning and construction of the largest government building in 17th century Europe proved the ideal public relations effort for the rich and powerful and above all republican city of Amsterdam. The general euphoria induced the city administrators to choose the most prestigious design from several plans submitted by the leading architects of the day.

The city was proud of its town hall. Generations of school children where taught the symbolic significance of the number of wooden poles making up the foundation (13,659 poles, one for each of the days of the year with a one in front and a nine behind). The eighth Wonder of the World - a popular nickname in praise of this remarkable achievement - was designed to reflect the prosperity and power of Amsterdam. Brick was considered too pedestrian a construction material. A yellowish sandstone from Bentheim in Germany was used for the entire building (the stone has darkened considerably in the course of time, see the pictures below), while only marble was considered good enough for the interior. Jacob van Campen drew inspiration from the public buildings of Rome. A new Capitol was built for the Amsterdam burgomasters who thought of themselves as the consuls of the new Rome of the North. The glory of the Dutch Republic in general and the city of Amsterdam in particular yielded the most important historic and cultural monument of 17th century Holland. The building can be seen on many old drawings and paintings.

Until 1808 the building was used as a town hall. Subsequently, king Louis Napoleon turned it into a royal palace. The galleries were provided with wooden partitionings to create additional rooms. A balcony was added to the facade to meet royal public relations requirements. Splendid Empire furniture - still part of the collection of the palace today - served to modernise the interior decoration. In the course of the 20th century much work was done to the building. Louis Napoleon’s modifications were reversed and the palace was restored to its original state of a government building based on classical models. Since the 1960 restoration the building has been open to the public, though on a limited scale.

Style

Jacob van Campen designed a well-balanced building in a style we call Dutch Classicism. He exercised a considerable amount of restraint as far as the basic shapes and decorative schemes were concerned. These starting points resulted in a set-up characterised by perspicuity of design. Nowhere does the decoration distract one’s attention from the overall structure. The facade is a harmonious composition based on the proportions advocated by the champions of classical architecture. The prominent plinth supports two pilaster zones, each of them corresponding with a large and a smaller window (i.e. 1.5 storeys). Corinthian pilasters articulate the upper and Composite pilasters the lower section, a scheme promoted by Vincenzo Scamozzi. The middle ressault and fronton as well as the corner pavilions slightly project beyond the building line. Capitals, festoons and other sculptural elements are of the very best quality without drawing too much attention to themselves. The festoons were copied by many designers of canal houses. Especially impressive are the large sculptured marble pediments and the bronze statues on top of the frontons.

The dome is crowned by a weather vane in the shape of the oldest version of the Amsterdam coat of arms, the cargo ship. The original plan of the dome included eight sculptures representing the points of the compass. However, this plan was never realised.

The central dome afforded a fine view of the IJ and the arrivals and departures of the many ships. A notable aspect of the building is the lack of a conspicuous main entrance. Seven unadorned arches at street level (no steps) give access to the building, indicating that the town hall belonged to everybody.

Whereas the exterior of the building is austere and reticent in character, its interior may well be called dazzling. Jacob van Campen’s town hall, now the royal palace, should therefore be a priority on every sightseer’s list.

Literature

• Katharine Freemantle, The Baroque Town Hall of Amsterdam, Utrecht 1959
• J.E. Huisken, K.A. Ottenheym, G. Schwartz e.a., Jacob van Campen. Het Klassieke ideaal in de Gouden Eeuw, (Summary in English), Architectura & Natura Pers, Stichting Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1995
• Eymert-Jan Goossens, Treasure wrought by Shishel and Brush, The Town Hall of Amsterdam in the Golden Age, Waanders, Stichting Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam, Zwolle 1996

Lampposts

Lampposts dating back to 1844

Six cast iron lampposts surround the building. They date back to 1844 and were designed by Tetar van Elven (1803-1883). The royal lampposts were cleaned and painted in 1997 and are well worth a closer look.