Prinsengracht: all you need to know about this Amsterdam canal

Prinsengracht is the third and outermost of Amsterdam's three main canals.

Let's discover the canal and its surroundings together!

Prinsengracht: article summary

The Prinsengracht: at a glance

Together, these three canals form a 50-year expansion project launched in 1612. When it was completed, the city had grown to four times its original size.

In the 17th century, the population grew from 50,000 to 200,000, making it the 3ᵉ largest city in the world at the time, after London and Paris.

Points of interest along Prinsengracht

There are many points of interest along the Prinsengracht. Some of them are particularly worth seeing on your visit to the city.

Prinsengracht: the Eenhoornsluis

The entrance to the Prinsengracht is the Eenhoornsluis (Unicorn Lock), one of 16 locks built around the city in the 17th century. to control water levels in the canals and protect the city from the sea.

You can still see that the lock gates on the town side are much lower than the "flood gates" on the outside, which were built to protect the town from spring tides and north-westerly storms.

Hudde stone

The horizontal line on this stone indicates the height of the dikes around the town at that time. The average water level of the Zuyderzee near these dikes is has become the benchmark for water levels in city canals.

Flood protection and drainage of dirty canal water were the main reasons for setting a benchmark in water control.

Originally, there were 9 stones to measureThe one you can see near the Eenhoornsluis is the only one to have survived.

Prinsengracht: Posthorn's hidden church

During the Reformation, Catholics were expelled from public offices and churches. They could no longer practice their religion openly. So they built hidden, semi-clandestine churches to practice their faith.

There were 14 of these churches in the city. Everyone knew about them, but they could continue to exist as long as the parishioners remained discreet. Posthorn Church was one of them.

North Church

On the left is the Noordermarkt (northern market) with the northern church, built only two years after the western church by the same architect: Hendrick de Keyser.

The church benefited from funds donated by the same wealthy merchants who had financed the Western Church. But the merchants had intended the Western Church for their own use. The northern church was only for the people they preferred not to see in their western church.

It took 13 years to build the western churchThe northern church was completed in just two years.

Amsterdam's narrowest house

Most of the new arrivals in the early 17th century were merchants, all of whom wanted a canal-side home, so they could hoist their goods from the canal boats directly into the attic of their home.

At the top of each gable is a lifting hook for the block and tackle used to hoist the goods. These hooks are still widely used in Amsterdam.

Moving large pieces of furniture in or out of these houses always requires the use of these. All canal houses benefit from deep, narrow structures, with extremely steep staircases.

This particular architectural style is the result of local tax laws in the 17th century. Canal-side properties, rare and precious, were subject to taxes. depending on the width between the canal edge and the houses.

Anne Frank House Museum

The modern building on the next corner is the entrance to the Anne Frank Museum. One of the country's most popular museums, with almost a million visitors every year.

This is where you'll find the actual house where Anne Frank hid during the war and where she wrote her famous diary.

Prinsengracht: Amsterdam's Western Church

Amsterdam's most famous church dates back to 1631. It was one of the first four Protestant churches built by Catholics after the Reformation.

Queen Beatrix was married in this church in 1966 and the body of the painter Rembrandt has lain there since 1667.

The Amsterdam Peniche Museum

If you want to see what life is like on a barge, you can visit the barge museum on your left just before the bridge.

The owner was a teacher who, fed up with all the tourists asking if they could see his beautiful boat, turned it into a museum.

He lived on the boat, but the museum is now open both in summer and winter. winter. He moved to the boat on the other side of the canal for a little privacy.

Prinsengracht: the Amstelkerk church

It's a temporary wooden structure, built to serve as an emergency church for 10 years to facilitate services while funds were raised for a stone cathedral.

The money was never paid and the wooden church is still standing after more than 300 years. Sometimes religious services are still held here, but there's also a restaurant located within its walls.

Amstelveld square

This vast area had originally been left open to build a Protestant church of cathedral proportions, but the project's initiators were never able to raise sufficient funds.

The area became a town square. On Mondays, a popular plant and flower market is held here.

During your trip to Amsterdam, I recommend walking up the Prinsengracht and discovering all of the the wonders that lie within.

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