The Royal Palace of Amsterdam stands on the Dam Square in the center of the city, built between 1648 and 1665 as Amsterdam's city hall during the Dutch Golden Age to a design by the architect Jacob van Campen in the restrained Dutch Classicist style. Constructed on a foundation of more than thirteen thousand wooden piles driven into the marshy ground beneath the city, the building was celebrated in its own time as the largest and most costly town hall in Europe, decorated inside with sculpture by Artus Quellinus depicting themes of justice and civic virtue. Its function changed in 1808 when Louis Bonaparte, installed by his brother Napoleon as King of Holland, converted the building into a royal palace and had much of its interior refurnished in the Empire style. The building remains formally a royal palace today, used by the Dutch monarchy for state receptions and ceremonies while continuing to display many of its original seventeenth century civic sculptures and paintings.
Cross-Tradition Connections
In Style
Built 1648 to 1665 as Amsterdam's town hall to Jacob van Campen's design, the defining monument of Dutch classicist Baroque architecture.
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