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Fashionable in the late 17th and 18th centuries, bellshaped gables can be flamboyant (Prinsengracht 126) or unadorned (Leliegracht 57).

Sculptures – frequently of dolphins – were made to fill the right angles of gables, as inOudezijds Voorburgwal 119.

From 1690, gables fell out of vogue and decorative top mouldings came in: examples line the Herengracht.

Like many Catholic churches in Amsterdam, De Krijtberg (meaning Chalk Mountain) is known by its nickname rather than its official name, Franciscus Xaveriuskerk (after St Francis Xavier, a founding Jesuit monk); designed in 1884 by Alfred Tepe, it replaced a clandestine Jesuit chapel. It’s an impressive building, with an elegant, twin-steepled Neo-Gothic façade and an ornate interior that stands in marked contrast to the austerity of the city’s Protestant churches.

In the middle of the Begijnhof, the pretty English Reform Church got its name from the English (and Scottish) Presbyterians who worshipped there after it was requisitioned in 1578. There has been a church on this site since the end of the 14th century.

Gerrit van Arkel’s eyecatching 1905 building is a fine example ofNieuwe Kunst , the Dutch version of Art Nouveau. Built for an insurance company, it is now the world headquarters of the environmental campaigner Greenpeace.

One of two remaining wood-fronted houses in Amsterdam (see Het Houten Huis), In’t Aepjen was built in 1550 as a sailors’ hostel, and is now a bar. The name means “In the monkeys”: when sailors couldn’t pay, they would barter – sometimes with pet monkeys (see In 't Aepjen).

After prolonged stays in Germany, Venice and Rome, where he studied the works of Giorgione, Michelangelo and Raphael, Jan Van Scorel (1495–1562) returned to Utrecht in 1524. He introduced the techniques of the Renaissance to the Northern Netherlands; his portraits fuse Italian solidity of form with Netherlandish delicacy.

This type of Renaissance decoration depicts a human or animal face, and can be seen atOudezijds Voorburgwal 57.