In the last couple of years, we visited Amsterdam on many occasions. We travel to The Netherlands every two months to visit our family, but Amsterdam is far away from their place, so we didn't visit it much in the past. And frankly, we didn't like it that much. It changed when we spent a weekend there and discovered charming as well as trendy places visited by locals and realized that Amsterdam is a cool city. And the bistro with the best croissants in the world helped too 🙂
My sister loves The Netherlands, so we asked her and her boyfriend if they would like to spend a few days there with us. They happily agreed and we started to plan our itinerary. Even though my husband is Dutch he never visited The Royal Palace (he didn't even know that this was the palace and thought that it was some bank), so this was a great opportunity for all of us to explore it!
The Royal Palace is located in Dam square which is packed all year around. This is the place that we tend to avoid when we're in Amsterdam, but this time it was exactly where we were heading.
The royal family accept state visits at the palace and also many ceremonies are held there. We had no idea what to expect and were excited to enter the palace.
The palace was originally built as Amsterdam's town hall. The building dates back to the 17th century. At the beginning of the 19th century it was transformed into a palace. From outside, the palace does indeed look more like a huge Town hall. On top of the roof, we can see the statue of Peace which is a symbol to the end of the long war between the Dutch Republic and Spain. History
Let's go inside! There are way too many pigeons, so we didn't want to stay outside longer than necessary to avoid any unwanted accidents.
There were thousands of people outside and we thought it would be jampacked inside too. We were surprised that there were only a few people waiting in front of us to purchase their tickets. It didn't take long for our turn.
The entrance fee is EUR 12.50 per person. The audio guide is included in price and you can choose from several languages. Our tour started next to the ticket office with a short movie about history of the palace and the royal family.
Then we moved to The Citizen's Hall. This was probably the most impressive hall that I have ever visited. This enormous space is decorated with intricate sculptures, beautiful paintings and stunning chandeliers.
On one side of the hall is a sculpture of Atlas carrying the sky. It's the first thing that you see when you enter. The huge blue ball with golden dots is dominating the room.
On the opposite side we could see The Amsterdam Maiden representing the city of Amsterdam.
The maiden looks down over the world which is depicted on the massive maps on the floor. The statues and their position, such as the maiden looking over the world symbolize the importance of Amsterdam in the 18th century. The entire building was constructed to show the grandeur of the city.
We spent more than half an hour in the hall as there were so many things to see. I was fascinated by the ceiling. It is 25 meters tall!
On the sides of The Citizen's hall were smaller corridors from where we could enter the chambers.
I found the audio guide a bit complicated and it was difficult to follow it. Frankly, I was the only one from our group who kept following it as others got fed up and started to follow the crowds. My sister and her boyfriend don't understand English well anyway, so they didn't care much and simply enjoyed the decorations.
I loved the chandeliers in the chambers. Each of them had an impressive piece which was the main jewel of the room.
The rooms of the palace were the domain of burgomasters, council members, magistrates and many others. Today, they serve as rooms for official visits. I could imagine staying in one of those rooms 🙂
In each room there are paintings which were created for a purpose. Every painting tells a story with a wise lesson in how a public official should behave.
The rooms are decorated with heavy curtains, tapestry and furniture with royal symbols. This is exactly how I imagine the palaces to be in times of their highest glory.
Among the rooms we visited were the throne room, the royal room, the small reception room, the balcony chamber, the justice chamber, the Moses hall, the bedroom of the English quarter and even the chamber of the mistress of the robes of the royal households.
The entrance to each chamber is decorated with sculptures. There are sculptures of The four elements, Venus, Mars, sculptures symbolizing Peace, Prudence, Justice, Atlas, Vigilance and Moderation, and many more.
The former Town hall of Amsterdam used to be the largest secular building for 200 years. Already during the construction it was called 'the Eight Wonder of the world'. Eight Wonder
The statue of Apollo stands for the sun. It is placed above the Petty Affairs chambers.
At first I thought that each block on the ceiling had the same symbol. After a closer look I realized they are all different.
This is the Royal apartment where the family spends time when they are in the palace. I found it very interesting to visit those chambers as they are still serving their purpose.
There are many chandeliers in this post, but I couldn't help it 🙂
There were some controversial details for me, such as those candlesticks as they are a reminder of Dutch colonial history.
The chambers are situated around the Citizen's hall, so we kept coming back and could admire every angle of it.
The only chamber with open windows was The Balcony chamber. It was a beautiful light room with blue curtains. This was an interesting detail as the rest of the rooms had heavy red curtains with golden details.
Next to The Balcony chamber was The Justice chamber which reminded me of a luxurious villa rather than a palace.
The bedroom of the English quarter is used exclusively by heads of state. Even Winston Churchill stayed here when he was visiting Amsterdam in 1946.
The Red Salon was used as a drawing room of King's Louis Napoleon wife Hortense. Today, the breakfast is served here during state visits.
The statue of Mars symbolizes the planet Mars. There are also other sculptures symbolizing other planets with the idea that the earth is the center of the universe and Amsterdam is the center of the world.
The last part of the exposition is The Judiciary. It was a tribunal used for public announcements of death sentences. There was an opening in the wall and the prisoners were sent through this opening to the Dam square where they were executed. Judiciary
The female statues represent the guilt and remorse.
It was also an impressive room, but somehow it felt cold. You could feel the pain and fear of people who passed through this space.
From the Judiciary we moved back to the Dam square. We were all impressed and talked about what we saw for a bit. We spent a few hours in the palace and we were all hungry, so it was time for our late lunch.
We wanted to take it easy as we still had four days ahead of us, so we only planned a boat trip in the evening, but I will tell you about that next time.
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Martina