Amsterdam - Netherlands
Posted by: Metro2
N 52° 22.380 E 004° 53.460
31U E 628730 N 5804208
The Royal Palace was originally the Amsterdam Town Hall.
Waymark Code: WMHF6N
Location: Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Date Posted: 07/03/2013
Views: 43
The former Amsterdam Town Hall, and now the Royal Palace, is not the most beautiful building on the outside and as of 2012 could use a good cleaning. But the interior is reportedly beautiful. Having said that, the building does have some wonderful reliefs and a frieze as well as an Atlas statue at it's top.
As for the City of Amsterdam, it is relatively new compared to other European municipalities, having been organized in the early 1300s. It has a population of about 800,000 and is considered the capital of the Netherlands despite the seat of governement being set in The Hague. Read more about the City at (
visit link)
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The Royal Palace in Amsterdam (Dutch: Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam or Paleis op de Dam) is one of three palaces in the Netherlands which are at the disposal of the monarch by Act of Parliament. The palace was built as a city hall during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. The building became the royal palace of King Louis Napoleon and later of the Dutch Royal House. It is situated on the west side of Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam, opposite the War Memorial and next to the Nieuwe Kerk...
After the patriot revolution which swept the House of Orange from power a decade earlier, the new Batavian Republic was forced to accept Louis Napoleon, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, as King Louis I of Holland in 1806. After holding his court at The Hague and Utrecht, Louis Napoleon moved to Amsterdam, and converted the Town Hall into a royal palace for himself.
The King of Holland did not have long to appreciate his new palace. He abdicated on 2 July 1810, his son Napoleon Louis Bonaparte succeeded him for 10 days as King Louis II, then the Netherlands was annexed by France. The palace then became home to the French governor, Charles François Lebrun."