AllAmsterdam

During the Dutch Golden Age, Amsterdam's population was growing rapidly. New churches were needed for the spiritual needs of the population, the churches were each crowned with Renaissance towers that were meant to impress visitors with the city's wealth. During this time Amsterdam was blessed with a great architect, Hendrick de Keyser, who designed many buildings throughout the Netherlands.

Undoubtedly Hendrick de Keyser's greatest masterpiece is the Renaissance skyline of Amsterdam.

The skyline that still dominates the downtown area of Amsterdam consists of a series of towers, half of them being churchtowers .
Besides churchtowers he also 'pimped-up' several old citywall towers, which were given new uses in the ever expanding city.

The illustration above is a compilation of his work. Two of the towers have sadly enough been demolished in the 19th century. From within his work the tower in the middle (Westertoren) is the most famous, people that live nearby used to call it "the pearl of the Jordaan". The westertoren is literally crowned, a symbolic reference to emperor Maximilian who granted Amsterdam to use the image of his crown in its city-arms in the 15th century.

Images are property of bureau Monumenten & Archeologie (bMA) , part of the city of Amsterdam, http://www.bma.amsterdam.nl/

Back