Trippenhuis: The Cannon Merchants' Canal Palace

Why is it significant?

Look across the Kloveniersburgwal canal at that colossal classical stone mansion with eight Corinthian pilasters: the Trippenhuis.

Key Facts

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Look across the Kloveniersburgwal canal at that colossal classical stone mansion with eight Corinthian pilasters: the Trippenhuis. Built in sixteen sixty-two by architect Justus Vingboons for wealthy brothers Louys and Hendrick Trip, this is the widest canal residence in all of Amsterdam, measuring twenty-two meters across.

How did the Trip brothers amass the colossal fortune required to build a private palace of solid German sandstone while other residents built in modest red brick? They were international arms merchants. During the Thirty Years' War, the Trip family controlled iron mines and foundries in Sweden, manufacturing thousands of cast-iron cannons, muskets, and tons of gunpowder sold to all sides of the European conflict.

Look up at the rooftop chimneys framing the roof: they are not ordinary brick stacks. Vingboons sculpted the stone chimneys to look like upright mortar cannons pointing into the sky, proudly announcing the deadly trade that paid for the mansion! Across the canal at number twenty-six sits the Little Trippenhuis, measuring just two meters wide: legend says the Trip brothers' coachman remarked that he would be content with a house as wide as his masters' front door, and his amused employer built him one to size!

For over seventy years in the nineteenth century, the Trippenhuis served as the first home of the Rijksmuseum, displaying Rembrandt's Night Watch before its transfer to Museumplein. Today, it houses the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.