Zevenlandenhuizen: Seven Houses, Seven Countries
Why is it significant?
Walk slowly along this row of houses and watch them change nationality every few steps. A Moorish horseshoe arch, a small onion dome, a tall Dutch stepped gable, a timbered English cottage... it is like flicking through a picture book of Europe made of brick.
Key Facts
| Place | Zevenlandenhuizen: Seven Houses, Seven Countries |
|---|---|
| Address | Roemer Visscherstraat 20-30, 1054 EX Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.36160, 4.87730 |
| Part of Walk | Amsterdam's Green Heart: Vondelpark, Oud-Zuid and the Concertgebouw |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk slowly along this row of houses and watch them change nationality every few steps. A Moorish horseshoe arch, a small onion dome, a tall Dutch stepped gable, a timbered English cottage... it is like flicking through a picture book of Europe made of brick.
These are the Zevenlandenhuizen, the Seven Countries Houses. They were built in 1894 to designs by the architect Tjeerd Kuipers, and each one dresses in the style of a different country: Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, the Netherlands and England. See if you can match them before you read the answer anywhere. The Russian one gives itself away first.
Why would anyone do this on a quiet residential street? Remember when they went up. The new neighbourhood around the park was being sold to well-off families, and a plain canal-style house would not stand out. And only eleven years earlier, in 1883, Amsterdam had hosted a great international exhibition on the empty land behind the brand new Rijksmuseum, full of pavilions dressed up as faraway countries. These seven houses feel like a permanent souvenir of that taste for the world in miniature.
Look at the street sign too. Roemer Visscher was a merchant and poet who died in 1620, and his Amsterdam home was a meeting place for writers and artists. His daughters Anna and Maria Tesselschade became poets in their own right, admired by the brightest minds of their day, and Tesselschadestraat is just around the corner. In this part of town, almost every street remembers a writer.
Pay attention to the little front gardens and the trees between the houses. When this street was laid out, the park next door was the whole selling point: green views, fresh air, a short walk to the bridle paths. Nature was the luxury. Now walk to the far end of the street, cross over, and look up for a church spire rising above the rooftops of Vondelstraat.