DK Travel : Amsterdam : History & Culture

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Heineken Experience

The biggest draw to Heineken’s former brewery, which ceased production here in 1988, must be the free beer at the end of the tour (if you are over 18). On the way, you will learn the story of Holland’s most famous brewery, walk through the brewhouse with its huge copper stills, and visit the stables. The dray horses here are still to be seen carting beer, but only for publicity purposes.
Heineken Music Hall

Amsterdam’s second biggest live music venue (the ArenA next door, home to Ajax football team, is the biggest). Some distance from the centre, but worth it to catch the likes of Garbage or The Chemical Brothers.
Hermitage

When this soberhofje , the Amstelhof, was completed in 1683, it was the widest building in Amsterdam. It was part of the final phase of work on the Grachtengordel when the three canals were extended beyond the Amstel and given the prefix “Nieuwe”. Part of the building now houses the Hermitage Amsterdam, a satellite of the Hermitage, St Petersburg.
Het Muziektheater

The Dutch royals regularly pop in to catch shows at this comfortable – and once controversial – modern theatre, which is home to the Netherlands Opera and Ballet companies (see Stopera). Tickets for shows – particularly opera – can sell out months in advance, so it’s advisable to book before you travel if you want to go. Inspired programming gives contemporary culture vultures an occasional look-in.
Hollandsche Manege

Magnificent and quite unexpected, concealed behind an unexceptional façade, A L van Gendt’s Hollandsche Manege is a vast Neo-Classical indoor riding school, built in 1881. (It was commissioned to replace the original Dutch Riding School building, which was situated on Leidsegracht.) Based on the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, it sports elegant plasterwork, sculpted horses’ heads, and a stunning open ironwork roof rising high above the sand arena. The school was threatened with demolition in the 1980s, but public outcry saved it. If there is a lesson in progress, you can stay and watch. There is also a café.
Hollandsche Schouwburg

During the Nazi occupation, this former theatre was used as an assembly-point for thousands of Jews. Behind an intact façade, a garden has been created around a basalt monument on the site of the auditorium. The names of 6,700 Dutch Jews are engraved in a memorial hall to the 104,000 who were exterminated. There is an exhibition upstairs.
Hollandsche Schouwburg

Jewish families were rounded up at this operetta theatre before being transported to the death camps. A moving memorial and a small exhibition of memorabilia keep their memory alive (see Hollandsche Schouwburg).
Hortus Botanicus

About 8,000 different species of plants, flowers and trees, an ornamental pond, rock and herb gardens, and numerous glasshouses are crammed into this small, wedge-shaped botanical garden. Most of the exotic plants were collected by the VOC in the 17th and 18th centuries. Highlights are a 300-year old Cycad palm, the three-climates glasshouse and a coffee plant, Europe’s first, smuggled out of Ethiopia in 1706.
Hugo Grotius

Statesman and philosopher (1583–1645). Author ofDe Jure Belli et Pacis , the foundation stone of international law.
Huis met de Hoofden

An eye-catching extravaganza, the House with the Heads is named for the six heads on its elaborate step-gabled façade representing Classical gods – Apollo, Ceres, Mars, Minerva, Diana and Bacchus. Built in 1622 for a successful merchant, its Dutch Renaissance design is attributed to Hendrick de Keyser. Today it is occupied by the body in charge of Amsterdam’s public monuments. The ground floor has scarcely changed.