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As well as portraits, genre paintings and landscapes, still lives had an important place in Dutch 17th-century art. Peter Claesz (1597–1661) reached a peak of technical skill in his harmonious if academic compositions, which are replete with symbolic detail.

Stuyvesant (1592–1672) was Governor of the colony of Nieuw Amsterdam, later to be New York, from 1646–64.

Named after the Portuguese merchant Isaac de Pinto, who paid an exorbitant 30,000 guilders for it in 1651, the building has an impressive Italianate façade and ceiling paintings by Jacob de Wit.

Inspired by the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, Elias Bouman’s bulky red-brick synagogue is still the core of the small Sephardic community for whom it was built in 1675. The massive wooden barrel-vaulted ceiling is lit by more than 1,000 candles(see Portugees-Israëlitische Synagoge).

Dedicated to the women of Ravensbrück, one of the most disturbing of the city’s Holocaust memorials (1975) incorporates a sinister soundtrack and eerily flashing lights.

The greatest artist of the Dutch Golden Age (see Rembrant and The Night Watch).

This former butter market has what you might call a split personality. In its centre is a 19th-century statue of Rembrandt set in a tranquil garden, but around its sides are neon-lit, low-brow and – at night – high-octane bars and cafés, packed with Amsterdammers and visitors alike. This is a great place for an early evening drink; you might choose grand cafés Schiller and De Kroon, as popular at the turn of the 20th century as they are now.

Designed as shipping company offices by van der Mey, de Klerk and Kramer, this fanciful building (1916) is smothered in nautical whimsy – mariners, monsters, and mermaids.

The Schreierstoren (Tower of Tears) is one of Amsterdam’s oldest buildings – a surviving fragment of the medieval city wall.