15 Best Sights in Canal Rings, Amsterdam

In the pages of The Diary of Anne Frank (published posthumously in 1947 by her father, Otto, as The Annex—the title she had chosen), the young Anne recorded two increasingly fraught years living in secret, in a warren of rooms at the back of this 1635 canal house, hidden from the Nazis. Anne was born in Germany in 1929; when she was four, her family moved to the Netherlands to escape growing anti-Jewish sentiment. They made a life in their adopted city until the threat of war in Europe increased. After repeated attempts to emigrate to England, Australia, Chile, and the United States failed and the war reached the Netherlands in 1940, Anne's father Frank took his wife and daughters into hiding in July 1942, the day after Anne's sister Margot received the call to report for a German work camp. A week later they were joined by the Van Pels family: Auguste, Hermann, and their son, Peter. Four months later, dentist Fritz Pfeffer moved in.

The five adults and three children sought refuge in the attic of the rear annex, or achterhuis, of Otto's pectin business in the center of Amsterdam. The entrance to the flat was hidden behind a hinged bookcase. Here, like many onderduikers ("people in hiding") throughout Amsterdam, Anne dreamed her dreams, wrote her diary, and pinned up movie-star pictures to her wall (still on view). Five of Otto's trusted employees provided them with food and supplies. In her diary, Anne chronicles the day-to-day life in the house: her longing for a best friend, her crush on Peter, her frustration with her mother, her love for her father, and her annoyance with the petty dentist, who was called Dussel in her diary. In August 1944, the Franks were betrayed, and the Gestapo invaded their hideaway. All the members of the annex were transported to camps. Anne and Margot died of typhoid in Bergen-Belsen a few months before the liberation. Otto Frank was the only survivor of the annex. Miep Gies, one of the friends who helped with the hiding, found Anne's diary after the raid and kept it through the war. Now, millions of people read its tale of humanity's struggle with fascism. A major renovation was completed in 2018 to provide more historical context. Every Tuesday at 10am CEST all tickets become available for a visit six weeks later.

Because of crowds, you must now buy a timed ticket online (through the official website only) before you visit---every Tuesday at 10 am (local Amsterdam time) all tickets become available for a visit six weeks later. 

Of Amsterdam's 60-plus drawbridges, this is the most famous, and it provides gorgeous views of the Amstel and surrounding area. It's said to have been first built in the 1660s, around the time of the construction of the Eastern Canal Ring. While there are many theories about the origins of its name, the most colorful tells a tale of two sisters living on opposite sides of the Amstel who wanted an efficient way of sharing that grandest of Dutch traditions: the gezellige (socially cozy) midmorning coffee break. Whether "mager" referred to their surname, slim physiques, or possibly even their miserliness, we'll never know. Walk by at night when it's spectacularly lighted. Many replacements to the narrow original bridge have come and gone; the current one dates from 1931 but bears a close resemblance to the 19th-century design.

Once home to one of Rembrandt's most successful students, Ferdinand Bol, this house and its twin next door (No. 674) were built in 1672 by Adriaen Dortsman and extensively remodeled in the 18th century by Abraham van Hagan and his wife, Catherina Tripp, whose names are entwined in the ornate brass balustrade on the staircase. House No. 672 was occupied by the powerful Van Loon family from 1886 to 1960. After extensive restoration to return it to its glory of the 18th century, the house was opened as a museum in the 1970s. The elegant salons include many Van Loon portraits and possessions, including paintings known as witjes, or grisailles—illusionistic depictions of landscapes and other scenes. The symmetrical garden is a gem. Facing the rear of the house, the restored Grecian-style coach house holds the coach collection and serves tea.

Visit this house museum for a chance to imagine what it was like to live in a gracious mansion on the Herengracht in the 19th century. In 1895, widow Louisa Willet-Holthuysen bequeathed the house to the city, along with all of its contents—now under the management of the Amsterdam Museum. It's well worth spending an hour or so perusing the interiors and artwork, which include a sumptuous ballroom and a rarities cabinet. You can also lounge in the French Classical–style garden in the back.

The Netherlands' most popular photography museum (200,000 visitors a year, and counting) hosts large-scale international photography exhibitions, alongside smaller shows for up-and-coming artists. World-renowned Dutch photographers such as Inez van Lamsweerde, Vinoodh Matadin, Hendrik Kerstens, and Rineke Dijkstra have all had shows here. The shop, café, small library, and museum have a dramatically contemporary interior.

A top photo op around the Canal Ring, the Torensluis is the oldest original stone bridge in Amsterdam and the widest of its kind. It was named for the medieval city wall tower that abutted this 17th-century sluice gate (you can still see its outlines in the pavement stones). The rooms with barred windows that you see at the base of the bridge were once a prison.

Built between 1620 and 1631 by Hendrick de Keyser, the Dutch Renaissance-style Westerkerk was the largest Protestant church in the world until St. Paul's Cathedral in London was built in 1675. The Westerkerk's 85-meter-tall Ouwe Wester, still the tallest church tower in the city, is topped by a bright blue copy of the crown of the Habsburg emperor Maximilian I, who gave Amsterdam the right to use his royal insignia in 1489 in gratitude for support given to the Austro-Burgundian princes.

The church is renowned for its organ and carillon (there are regular lunchtime concerts from March through September). The carillon is played every Tuesday at noon by a real person (a carillonneur) but is automated at other times with different songs tinkling out on the quarter hour, day and night. Anne Frank described the tunes in her diary. Rembrandt, who lived on Rozengracht during his poverty-stricken last years, and his son, Titus, are buried (somewhere) here. The Westertoren (Westerkerk Tower) is a fun climb from April to the end of October, though it's closed for renovations until 2025. 

Busts of the Greek deities of Apollo, Ceres, Mercury, Minerva, Bacchus, and Diana welcome visitors to this magnificent example of Dutch Renaissance architecture known as Huis met de Hoofden (The House with the Heads). It is one of only three houses in Amsterdam with a side house, and a forerunner of the double house. The Bartolotti House ( Herengracht 170–172) and De Dolfijn ( The Dolphin, Singel 140–142) are the other notable examples. This 1622 mansion is attributed to father and son architects Hendrick and Pieter de Keyser. In 2007 the mansion was bought by Joost R. Ritman, owner of a world-famous collection of spirituality literature, the Hermetic Philosophy Library. In 2017, the Ritman Library was moved to Het Huis met de Hoofden, creating a museum, library, and platform for free thinking inspired by the philosophy of the collection. The Embassy of the Free Mind is focused on Western philosophical and spiritual traditions and their connections to concepts such as free speech and contrarian thinking.

Following a three-year renovation, the restored home of the former Felix Meritus Society (Latin for "happiness through achievement") reopened in March 2020. Situated in a typical building of the Enlightenment—its Neoclassical architecture arose one year before the French Revolution, 1788—it once housed a society dedicated to the study and promotion of economics, science, painting, music, and literature. The building has an observatory and concert hall (Robert and Clara Schumann performed here twice). After the dissolution of the society in 1888, it was owned by printers, occupied by the Communist Party, and then became a venue for performing arts under the name Shaffy Theater. It's now a cultural center for "curious minds" with plays, films, readings, and debates; see the website for the latest events.

The world's first memorial to persecuted gays and lesbians was designed by Karin Daan and unveiled here in 1987. Three huge triangles of pinkish granite—representing past, present, and future—form a larger triangle. On May 4 (Remembrance Day), there are services here commemorating all homosexual victims in history, with an emphasis on the victims of World War II, when thousands were killed (the 50,000 sentenced were all forced to wear pink triangles stitched to their clothing). Flowers are laid daily for lost friends, especially on the descending triangle that forms a dock of sorts into Keizersgracht. The points of the triangles point to the Anne Frank House, the National Monument on Dam Square, and the COC Center, the gay-and-lesbian organization founded in 1946 (discreetly called the Center of Culture and Leisure Activities). Near the Homomonument is the kiosk housing Pink Point, the best source of information on gay and lesbian Amsterdam.

This cutting-edge contemporary photography museum is housed in 14 exhibition rooms of a gorgeous 17th-century canal house and its neighbor. Originally owned by a merchant who earned his wealth from a ship that sailed from Marseille, there's still a gable stone that depicts a map of the French port for which the house was named. The widest possible range of genres is covered by new shows every three months. There are also thousands of photography books in the library.

This museum honors the beliefs and work (and continues the legacy) of Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820–87), aka Multatuli (from the Latin, meaning "I have suffered greatly"), who famously wrote Max Havelaar, or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company, a book that uncovered the evils of Dutch colonialism. Born in this very house as the son of a sea captain, Dekker accompanied his father to the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) and joined the Dutch civil service there. After becoming disenchanted and spending years wandering in poverty, he wrote and published his magnum opus in 1860, denouncing and exposing the colonial landowners' narrow minds and inhumane practices. Today, Dutch intellectuals and progressive thinkers respect him mightily.

This tower received its current name in 1672, when French troops occupied much of the surrounding republic, and Amsterdam was given the right to mint its own coins here for a brief one-year period. The spire was added by Hendrick de Keyser in 1620, and the weather vane on top in the shape of a gilded ox is a reference to the calves market close by: Kalverstraat. The guardhouse, which now houses a rather touristy Dutch porcelain shop, has a gable stone above its entrance that portrays two men and a dog in a boat. This is a symbolic representation of the city, in which warrior and merchant are bound together by loyalty—that would be the dog—and sailing toward the future.

Established in 1848, the city's archives comprise millions of maps, drawings, prints, books, photographs, and film about Amsterdam: there are a staggering 50 km (30 miles) worth, making it the largest municipal archive in the world. Highlights—300 of the "most attractive, unusual, valuable, and moving" items—are on permanent display in the Treasury, former bank vaults that look like the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh. The epic checkerboard building, completed in 1926 and named in honor of its theosophist architect Karel de Bazel, is also fascinating and infused with its creator's religious beliefs. In theosophy, a building is an art form that can express a higher message using mathematical principles to achieve total harmony. Have deep thoughts over lunch in the café or browse the excellent on-site bookstore, which sells just about every available Amsterdam-relevant publication. Special exhibitions are usually also excellent.

Amsterdam has a rich history of tobacco trading and smoking, and this quirky museum has an enormous collection of items. There are nearly 30,000 pipes and pipe-related objects, including prehistoric pipes, artistically modeled and skillfully painted smoking gear from all eras and from around the globe, pipe maker tools, and tobacco wrappers and vignettes. There's a pipe shop on-site, if you're inspired to purchase something, as well as a library in the Amsterdam Pipe Shop at the same address.