Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal

The Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal () is a street in the centre of Amsterdam. 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 and Nieuwendijk.

Name

The street name means 'New Side Front Bastion Wall'. In the 14th century, the city of Amsterdam was equally divided into two parts, each on 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, and Oudezijds Achterburgwal. When the canals of the new side bastion walls of and were filled in, the latter was renamed Spuistraat, after Spui 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. It has tram stops at , called Dam, and at . It used to also be a major route for regional buses before the city decided to decrease the number of buses running through the historic city centre. In 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 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 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 Nieuwe Kerk, the Amsterdam Museum 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 during World War II, lived with her family at 282.

Gallery

File:The Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal with the Flower Market, Amsterdam by Gerrit Berckheyde 1686.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
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

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