Amsterdam

Amsterdam takes its name from the dam built across the mouth of the Amstel, probably between 1264 and 1275, to control flooding. The settlement first appears in a document of 1275, in which Count Floris V of Holland freed the people living "at the dam in the Amstel" from tolls. From the 15th century the town built its own trade with the Baltic in grain and timber, cutting out the Hanseatic League, and grew rich on the herring fishery — hence the saying that Amsterdam is built on herring bones.

The largely Catholic city joined the revolt against Spain late, in 1578. Refugees soon poured in — Sephardic Jews from Iberia, merchants and printers from Flanders, and French Huguenots — and in the 17th century Amsterdam became the wealthiest city in the Western world. The East India Company and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, founded in 1602, sat at the centre of a trading network that reached Asia and the Americas, and the canal ring was dug to house the new merchant class. The city hall on Dam Square, built in this age, became a royal palace in 1808, after Louis Bonaparte had become King of Holland in 1806.

The late 19th century brought a second golden age of new museums, a railway station and the Concertgebouw. Under the Nazi occupation the city's Jewish community, around 60,000 people at the start, was almost destroyed: only about a fifth survived. After the war, the Nieuwmarkt riots stopped plans to demolish parts of the old centre for a highway, though the metro beneath was built. Today the old centre is protected, and the pressing questions are housing costs and how many tourists the city can take.

Few cities of its size hold as much art. The Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum drew about 2.4 million and 1.8 million visitors in 2024, the Stedelijk covers modern art and design, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra plays in one of the most visited concert halls in the world. Amsterdam was home to Rembrandt and Van Gogh, to the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and to Anne Frank, whose hiding place on the Prinsengracht is now the country's third most visited museum. The city has its own popular song tradition too: in the 1950s Johnny Jordaan sang the praises of the city and his own neighbourhood, the Jordaan.

The city's identity rests on tolerance and directness. Its Jewish community left Yiddish words in the Amsterdam dialect, and today about half the population of the city proper has an immigrant background. Amsterdam Pride, with its boat parade along the canals, and King's Day, when the city turns orange, are the great public celebrations. Football means Ajax, the club of Johan Cruyff, whose stadium bears his name.

The bicycle is part of the city's character, and nights out range from the old brown cafés to the restaurants and clubs around the Leidseplein and the electronic music of the Amsterdam Dance Event. In recent years the city has pushed back against rowdy tourism, banning cannabis smoking in public in and around the red-light district in 2023 and running a campaign to discourage young British men from coming only to party.

About 940,000 people lived in the city in early 2026, nearly 1.5 million in the urban area and about 2.5 million in the metropolitan area. Amsterdam is intensely urbanised, and its housing shortage is acute: real-estate prices have surged, and in the old centre local shops have given way to tourist businesses, leaving much of it unaffordable for residents. Once working-class districts have changed too: the Jordaan is now one of the most expensive addresses in the country and De Pijp is partly gentrified, while many families of non-Western origin live in Nieuw-West, the Bijlmer and parts of Noord.

Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands, and tourism and technology matter too. Heineken, ING, ABN AMRO and Booking.com have their headquarters in the area, and the Zuidas has become the city's financial and legal hub. Daily markets such as the Albert Cuyp and the Dappermarkt still serve the neighbourhoods.

The day is set by the bicycle: residents ride to work, school and the shops in all weather, and the city has been removing car parking spaces since 2019 to make more room for people and bikes. Summer evenings are spent on terraces, in the Vondelpark and on boats on the canals, and winter on the sofa or in the brown café on the corner.

Herring has fed Amsterdam since the Middle Ages, and fish stalls around the city still sell it, usually with onions and pickles, or in a roll as a broodje haring. Kibbeling, battered chunks of fish, traditionally cod, is a Dutch snack. The city's own speciality is ossenworst, a raw beef sausage originally made of ox meat, and bitterballen — fried breaded balls of ragout — are a local favourite. At the Albert Cuyp Market stroopwafels, thin round waffles held together by a syrup filling, are made fresh at the stalls.

Jenever, the juniper spirit from which modern gin derives, is traditionally served in a glass filled to the brim, and the first sip is taken by bending over it. Heineken began as an Amsterdam brewery, and its original brewery is now the Heineken Experience museum.

The country's colonial history shows in the city's food. Indonesian and Surinamese restaurants are everywhere, serving the rijsttafel, many small side dishes with rice, and roti, and the Zeedijk near the Nieuwmarkt is the city's Chinatown, with Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Indonesian restaurants. De Pijp's streets hold kitchens from across the world, and the Dappermarkt in Oost reflects the communities around it.