The Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal () is a street in the centre of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. The street runs north-south without intersecting major streets other than the intersection with Raadhuisstraat at its halfway point, right behind the Royal Palace. On the eastern side it has a number of alleys connecting to

Kalverstraat The Kalverstraat (, ) is a busy shopping street of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The street runs roughly North-South for about 750 meters, from Dam Square to Muntplein square. The Kalverstraat is the most expensive shopping stre ...

and Nieuwendijk.

Name

The street name means 'New Side Front Bastion Wall'. In the 14th century, the city of Amsterdam was equally divided in two parts, each at one side of the River Amstel. To defend the city against intruders, a canal with a bastion wall () was built. The protecting the oldest of the two sides was called the Old Side Bastion Wall. The bastion wall at the new side was called the New Side Bastion Wall. When in 1385 a new bastion wall was built with a canal—''behind'' the old bastion walls—those were now called New Side Behind Bastion Wall and Old Side Behind Bastion Wall. The original bastion walls were then renamed as New Side Front Bastion Wall and Old Side Front Bastion Wall. In Dutch, these names are often written as compounds, hence the rather long names for these four canal streets: , ,

Oudezijds Voorburgwal The Oudezijds Voorburgwal, often abbreviated to OZ Voorburgwal, is a street and canal in De Wallen in the center of Amsterdam. The OZ Voorburgwal runs from the Grimburgwal in the south to the Zeedijk in the north, where it changes into the Oud ...

and

Oudezijds Achterburgwal The Oudezijds Achterburgwal, often abbreviated to ''OZ Achterburgwal'', is a street and canal in De Wallen, the red light district in the center of Amsterdam. Location and characteristics Just like the Oudezijds Voorburgwal, the OZ Achterburgwa ...

. When the canals of the new side bastion walls of and were filled in, the latter was renamed Spuistraat, after

Spui A single-point urban interchange (SPUI, or ), also called a single-point interchange (SPI) or single-point diamond interchange (SPDI), is a type of highway interchange. The design was created in order to help move large volumes of traffic thr ...

which both streets connect to. kept its name.

Traffic

Where the canal used to flow tram tracks were laid after the filling in. is now one of two main axes carrying trams towards

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

. It has tram stops at , called

Dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

, and at . It used to also be a major route for regional buses before the city decided to the decrease the number of buses running through the historic city centre. In the 1996 the southern part from Roskamsteeg to Spui was converted to one-way traffic in the northward direction for private motor vehicles. In 2018 a new traffic plan went into effect making the southern part of the street and only accessible from , cutting off private motor vehicle connections past Spui to

Singel The Singel is one of the canals of Amsterdam. The Singel encircled Amsterdam in the Middle Ages, serving as a moat around the city until 1585, when Amsterdam expanded beyond the Singel. The canal runs from the IJ bay, near the Central Statio ...

and Muntplein, thereby creating a loop. The northern part of , parallel-running and their connecting street of were turned into one-way southward traffic from

Prins Hendrikkade Prins Hendrikkade (Dutch for "Prince Henry's Quay") is a major street in the centre of Amsterdam. It passes Amsterdam Central Station, intersects the Damrak at the mouth of the Amstel river, and forms the southern end of the IJtunnel across the ...

to . The new traffic plan made a large-scale renovation of the street possible where more space was dedicated to cycling and pedestrian infrastructure and greenery rather than on-street parking and several lanes of motor traffic.

Notable locations

Halfway along the southern part of the street curves westwards. At that location the buildings on both sides of the streets are slightly recessed, creating a somewhat larger space, formerly used as a parking lot and colloquially called (Post Stamp Market), named after collector markets that used to be held here. contains a number of notable buildings, including the

Royal Palace of Amsterdam The Royal Palace of Amsterdam in Amsterdam (Dutch: ''Koninklijk Paleis van Amsterdam'' or ) is one of three palaces in the Netherlands which are at the disposal of the monarch by Act of Parliament. It is situated on the west side of Dam Square i ...

, the Nieuwe Kerk, the

Amsterdam Museum The Amsterdam Museum, known until 2010 as the Amsterdam Historical Museum, is an Amsterdam-based museum dedicated to the city's past and present. Due to the renovation of its main location, the museum is temporarily located in the building the Ams ...

and the former main post office which is now the Magna Plaza. Across from the royal palace on the corner with W Hotel can be found housed in a 1930s telegraphy building. Central Amsterdam's police station can be found on at . Dutch psychiatrist Tina Strobos, who rescued over 100 Jewish refugees from the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, lived with her family at 282.

Gallery

File:Paleist3.jpg, A view of the city hall from by Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde, 1686 File:Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal gezien in noordelijke richting naar het Koninklijk Paleis.jpg, before filling in the canal File:George Hendrik Breitner 004.jpg, View towards after the canal has been filled in, circa 1900 by

George Hendrik Breitner George Hendrik Breitner (12 September 1857 – 5 June 1923) was a Dutch painter and photographer. An important figure in Amsterdam Impressionism, he is noted especially for his paintings of street scenes and harbours in a realistic style. He pa ...

File:Telegraaf.jpg, Former De Telegraaf head office and printing press building File:RM 518474 Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal - Politieposthuisje (foto 1).jpg, A former police outpost at File:Old head post office.jpg, The old post office, now Magna Plaza

References

Streets in Amsterdam Former canals in Amsterdam {{Netherlands-road-stub