Western canal ring route

Prinsengracht / Brouwersgracht, Amsterdam

This route passes ten remarkable façades in the oldest part of the canal ring, from the oldest stepped gable in the city to the narrowest façade in Amsterdam.

The first stretch of the canal ring

What you see here is the product of the expansion plan with which Amsterdam began its greatest growth spurt in 1613.

Built between 1613 and 1625: the western section of the canal ring came first, which is why the architecture is older and plainer here than in the southern stretch.
Two centuries in one street: the Golden Age blends with the Middle Ages. Stepped gables, bell gables and neck gables often stand side by side, making this route an open-air course in gable architecture.
Why the houses are so narrow: property tax was calculated on the width of the façade. So people built narrow and upwards, with hoisting beams at the top for hauling goods into the attic.
Bordering the Jordaan: the route touches the Jordaan, the working-class district laid out at the same time but with far narrower streets and plainer houses.

The ten stops (1600 to 1660)

At almost every stop the façade is the point: the oldest, the tallest, the widest or the narrowest in the city.

Singel 2 (1611)
Het Spaanse Huis has the oldest stepped gable in Amsterdam, and one of the widest at that. The stepped gable was the standard in the early seventeenth century.
Korte Prinsengracht 5, 7 and 9 (1620, 1750 and 1653)
A hundred and thirty years of gable building side by side: a stepped gable from 1620, a bell gable from 1750 and a neck gable from 1653. Nowhere else is the progression so compactly displayed.
Prinsengracht 2 (1641)
A corner house with stepped gables on two sides, unusual because most houses were finished only on the canal side.
Karthuizersstraat 89-171 (1650)
On the site of the former Carthusian monastery a courtyard for widows was built, the Huiszitten-Weduwenhof, also known as the Karthuizerhofje. Usually open during the day, but people live there.
Prinsengracht 154
A clear example of a house that runs at an angle to the canal behind its façade. The gable looks straight, but the building behind it is skewed.
Herengracht 168 (1636)
The oldest neck gable in Amsterdam. This form, with a raised central section and decorated scrolls on either side, gradually replaced the stepped gable.
Keizersgracht 123 (1622)
The Huis met de Hoofden, or House with the Heads, is a red brick building with white stone dressings and six gods' heads on the façade. Local lore claims they are the heads of caught burglars; in fact they are classical deities.
Singel 104 and 106 (1740)
The tallest pair of matching bell gables in the city, in Louis XIV style. Two identical houses designed as a single composition.
Kattengat 2 and 4 (1614)
The Gouden and Silveren Spiegel, a pair of matching stepped gables in Dutch Renaissance style, with the characteristic alternation of brick and stone.
Singel 7
At roughly one metre this counts as the narrowest façade in Amsterdam. Note that it is the rear façade of a larger building, not a complete house. The narrowest actual house stands on the Oude Hoogstraat, on our Old centre route.

The route at a glance

A compact route you can comfortably cover in a morning or an afternoon.

Distance and duration: around three kilometres, walkable in two and a half hours including stops. By bike it takes a little under an hour.
Start and finish: you begin on the Singel, ten minutes' walk from Amsterdam Central Station, loop through the Jordaan and finish close to the station again.
Stopping along the way: the Haarlemmerstraat and the Nine Streets lie on or near the route, with plenty of cafés and lunch spots.
When to go: early morning or towards sunset, when the light falls at an angle across the façades. On Mondays and Saturdays there is a market on the Noordermarkt, right on the route.
Look up: the finest details on this route sit above eye level, in the gable stones, the crowning gables and the hoisting beams.

Other routes

This route joins the Old centre route and the Southern canal ring route. See also our pages on walking and cycling.