Amstel Hotel: Sarphati's Palace on the River
Why is it significant?
Stop on the riverbank and let the building fill your view: a long, pale palace with mansard roofs and rows of tall windows, its terrace stepping right down to the water of the Amstel. Boats slide past, and the whole thing looks as if it had been shipped in from Paris.
Key Facts
| Place | Amstel Hotel: Sarphati's Palace on the River |
|---|---|
| Address | Professor Tulpplein 1, 1018 GX Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.36010, 4.90520 |
| Part of Walk | Herring, Stroopwafels and Roti: A Food Walk Through Amsterdam's De Pijp |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop on the riverbank and let the building fill your view: a long, pale palace with mansard roofs and rows of tall windows, its terrace stepping right down to the water of the Amstel. Boats slide past, and the whole thing looks as if it had been shipped in from Paris.
It is the last of Samuel Sarphati's dreams, the doctor from the park. He believed Amsterdam needed a hotel worthy of a capital, to bring in visitors and money, and he pushed the project through. He never saw it finished. Sarphati died in June 1866, and the hotel, designed by Cornelis Outshoorn, opened the following year. And here is the surprise: the front was originally meant to face the Sarphatistraat. Money ran out, and only the wing along the river was built... so the grandest hotel in the city is, in a sense, unfinished.
Notice the date, too: 1867, the same year the Heineken brewery opened at the start of this walk. And the river in front of you gave its name to Heineken's great rival. The Amstel brewery was founded in 1870 not far from here, on the Mauritskade. To keep its lager cold in summer, it cut ice from the frozen canals in winter and stored it in double-walled cellars. Heineken bought its rival in 1968, and in 1982 the Amstel brewery closed.
The river is older than any of it. Around the thirteenth century, people living at the mouth of the Amstel built a dam across it, and the settlement took its name from the dam. In 1275 the people of Amestelledamme were granted freedom from tolls by the Count of Holland, the first written mention of the city.
So that is De Pijp: two breweries, a doctor's dreams, a market that started without permission, and flavours carried here from three continents. You started at a brewery outside the old walls, and you finish beside the river that gave the city, and its beer, a name. If you are hungry again... the market is only a short walk back.