t Grand mansions lining the Golden Bend
t Grand mansions lining the Golden Bend
Experience Central Canal Ring
The extension of Amsterdam’s three major canals continued from the early 17th century, as the merchant classes, rich from booming maritime trade, sought to escape the overcrowding and industrial squalor in the old city, around the Amstel. They bought plots of land along the new extensions to the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht canals, and in the 1660s the wealthiest built opulent houses on a stretch of Herengracht known as the Golden Bend. Designed and decorated by the best architects of the day, such as Philips Vingboons (1607–1678), the mansions built here were often twice the width of standard canal houses, demonstrating the wealth of their occupants. The area’s most famous building, however, is the Anne Frank House. Together with the Homomonument, these sites attest to Amsterdam’s characteristic tolerance, as well as serving as reminders of the realities of the Nazi occupation during World War II.