In the 17th century the famous crescent shape of the Amsterdam city centre was designed. It is a unique ring of canals.

The Venice of the North has. 90 islands. What is even more interesting is there are about 400 stone bridges.

One third of the 20,000 buildings were built before 1850 and they huge mansions.

There are 6,700 national monuments in the City of Amsterdam.

In the second half of the 19th century is when many of the irreplaceable buildings were demolished.

In 1900 watchful Amsterdam citizens managed to stop the effort to fill in the Reguliersgracht. They were successful, but the demolition of the rest of the city buildings continued.

This included many buildings being torn down between 1917 and 1918 to allow for the widening of the Vijzelstraat.

Then, in 1925, the destruction of the buildings continued.

In the 1930s they tore down a lot of the original buildings and continued to even after the World War II.

In the 1950s there were further plans to tear down. In 1968 the large-scale change in the city was abandoned.

The monumental mansions, which underwent drastic alterations during the 19th and 20th centuries were turned into offices, but fortunately were now that are being restored to their original states.

In 1953, over 4,000 of the changed mansions underwent restoration to return them to their original states.

Twenty years ago, only 60,000 people actually lived in the city and called it their home and now there are 80,000 people that do.

Out of the approx. 7,300 historic buildings left in Amsterdam about 2,400 require restoration.

The people of the City of Amsterdam are ecstatic to have their buildings returned to normal. They take pride in the beautiful historical buildings that once lined their streets and now they will be once again. You also will find the city to be extremely picturesque with all the historical building that you will see.