Golden Bend: Where Wealthy Amsterdammers Lived

Amsterdam’s most coveted canal houses are the mansions clustered around the Gouden Bocht – the Golden Bend. This curve of Herengracht between Spiegelstraat and Vijzelstraat is the stretch where in the 17th century wealthy merchants built their lavish homes.

Late 16th and early 17th century Amsterdam prospered and an ever increasing number of people settled in the city. To solve the housing shortage, Amsterdam embarked on the canal belt project. Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht were dug, three canals encircling the old city centre. To provide homes for as many people as possible,  plots were limited in size, 9 m (30 ft) wide and 54 m (190 ft) deep, of which 25 m (82 ft) was reserved for the compulsory garden. These newly built canal houses solved the housing problem for the time being and brought in revenue. Residents were taxed according to the width of their homes.

Golden Bend in 1685 painted by G. A. Berckheyde

Affluent and privileged Amsterdammers interpreted the regulations creatively. They bought two adjacent plots, building one house with two fronts, or building one house with two front doors. A common feature for all these canal houses is the double staircase that leads up to the main entrance. Underneath the steps is a small door for the servants. Inspired by ancient Greece, the mansions are adorned with pediments, columns, pilasters and decorated with vases, busts, and scrolls. 

The Golden Bend overlooks a sequence of double-fronted mansions whose façades hint at the wealth inside. Today, many of these opulent canal houses have been converted into apartments, are museums or used as offices.

Golden Bend in 2010

Herengracht 475: extravagantly decorated with allegorical figures and surmounted by a slender balustrade.

Herengracht 493: double fronted mansion with a double staircase, and a lavishly carved pediment.

Four mansions on Herengracht are home to museums:
Herengracht  573: Museum of Bags and Purses displays 3,500 bags, purses and handbags. Two floors are devoted to historical bags. My favourite is a 16th century silver-framed leather pouch with eighteen little holes to store secret treasure. The top floor is cramped with 20th and 21st centuries bags, including Channel’s 2.55. The name refers to the month and year of its introduction.

Herengracht 597: Kattenkabinet gives an overview of the role the cat played in art through the centuries. The collection comprises cat-in-art mainly from Dutch and French artists; Rembrandt, Picaso, Corneille and Carel Willink. The big attraction are the real cats who snoop around their museum.

Herengracht 605: Museum Willet-Holthuysen allows a peek into the lives of wealthy merchants who lived in luxury along the canal. The dining room table is laid for six persons, a damask tablecloth and napkins and Meissen porcelain dinner set. As if the family and their guest will enter any minute.

Herengracht 627: Museum Van Loon allows a glimpse of the interior of a canal house. Stuccowork, mirrors, fireplaces, furnishings, porcelain, medallions, chandeliers and oriental rugs show the wealth of the Van Loon family. The garden is laid out in style with carefully manicured hedges and at the back a coach house modeled on a Greek temple.

Canal houses have surprisingly large decorative gardens which were meant to be looked at not to sit in or to work in. Gardeners kept them in shape. The flowers, plants and trees had to look their best in the winter months because this was the time of year that the owners lived in their town houses. The rest of the year they enjoyed life in the countryside. Today most canal house gardens have maintained the 17th century lay-out, but these days they look good both in winter and summer.

Each June, during Opentuindagen, Open Garden Festival, about twenty private back gardens are open to the public. The rest of the year you can visit one of the museums on Herengracht to get a taste of 17th century architecture and garden architecture.

WHAT: Museum of Bags and Purses
WHERE: Herengracht 573
OPENING HOURS: Monday – Sunday 10.00 – 17.00
ADMISSION: €7,50 – IAmsterdam Card holders free admission

WHAT: Kattenkabinet
WHERE: Herengracht 573
OPENING HOURS: Tuesday- Friday 10.00 – 16.00, Saturday and Sunday 12.00 – 17.00
ADMISSION: adults €5, Children 4 – 12 years €2,50
Museum Card and IAmsterdam card not honoured

WHAT: Museum Van Loon
WHERE: Keizersgracht 627
OPENING HOURS: 11.00 – 17.00 closed on Tuesday
ADMISSION: €7 – Museum Card and IAmsterdam Card holders free admission

WHAT: Museum Willet-Holthuysen
WHERE: Keizersgracht 605
OPENING HOURS: 10.00 – 17.00 closed on Monday
ADMISSION: €6 – Museum Card and IAmsterdam Card holders free admission

photo credits:
Golden Bend 1685 – wikipedia
Golden bend 2010 – Rogier Nieuwendijk

Related places:

1. A
   Tassenmuseum Hendrikje

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2. B
   Stichting het Kattenkabinet

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3. C
   Museum Van Loon

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4. D
   Museum Willet-Holthuysen

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