Spiegelkwartier and Spiegelgracht: Four Centuries of Antiques

Why is it significant?

Stand on the humpbacked brick bridge where the Spiegelgracht flows into the Prinsengracht, and gaze down the enchanting tree-lined Nieuwe Spiegelstraat.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stand on the humpbacked brick bridge where the Spiegelgracht flows into the Prinsengracht, and gaze down the enchanting tree-lined Nieuwe Spiegelstraat. In the shop windows of the narrow seventeenth-century brick townhouses, centuries of treasures glow under warm lamps: Delft blue porcelain, seventeenth-century globes, rare botanical prints, and Dutch clockworks.

Named after the influential Spiegel patrician family of Amsterdam, the Spiegelkwartier evolved over the past eighty years into the heart of the Dutch art and antiques trade, perfectly situated directly along the historic walking route between the canal houses and the Rijksmuseum.

Notice the charming forward lean of the canal house facades above you—known in Dutch as op de vlucht bouwen. Builders intentionally tilted the facades forward so that heavy furniture and trade goods hoisted up by pulley beams at the roof peak would never crash into the glass windows.

Stroll northward to the grandest stretch of water in the entire Netherlands: The Golden Bend on Herengracht.