Dam Square and the Royal Palace

In front of you is the exact spot where Amsterdam was born. Around 1270, the people of a small fishing settlement built a dam here to hold back the River Amstel. That dam gave the place its name: Amstel-dam. In 1275, Count Floris V granted the people 'of Amestelledamme' an exemption from tolls, the first document to mention the city.

1A town hall built to impress

The building that dominates the square was not built as a palace but as a town hall. Work began in 1648, the same year the Peace of Münster recognised the independence of the United Provinces from Spain. The architect Jacob van Campen designed a civic temple in sandstone, resting on more than 13,600 wooden piles driven into the mud. It was inaugurated in 1655, while still unfinished, and contemporaries called it the eighth wonder of the world.

Inside, the marble floor of the great Citizens' Hall maps the hemispheres of the Earth and the northern sky: Amsterdam was presenting itself as the centre of the universe. On the ground floor was the Vierschaar, the chamber where death sentences were read out in public.

A city of merchants built itself a town hall bigger than many royal palaces.

The irony came in 1808, when Louis Bonaparte, made King of Holland by his brother Napoleon, turned it into his residence. It has been a royal palace ever since, although the monarchs use it mainly for state receptions.

2What to look out for

• The ship-shaped weathervane on the dome, emblem of a city that lived from the sea.
• The sculpted pediment from the workshop of Artus Quellinus, with sea figures paying homage to Amsterdam.
• The lack of a grand entrance: the way in is hidden behind seven modest arches, perhaps so that no mob could storm it.