A brief history of Amsterdam
It’s time for a quick history lesson! So what better place to start than the very beginning. Amsterdam is a city full of rich history October 27, 1275 is considered Amsterdam’s birthday. The city started off as a small fishing village. In the 13th century some people built a dam across the Amstel river for protection. At the time Amsterdam went by the name of Amstelledamme. The Count of Holland granted inhabitants the right not to pay toll fees on goods moved on his rivers. Thanks to this toll privilege the inhabitants, the small fishing village grew to a big commercial center! An example of this is Kalverstraat, it is one of the most visited and popular shopping streets in the Netherlands. The more than 600 year old street used to serve as the cattle market where they sold cows, calves, and oxes. Kalveren means calves, so Kalverstraat literally translates to calves street.
We all know that Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands. This was officially stated only 38 years ago in a 1983 revision of the Constitution of the Netherlands. However, Amsterdam has been seen as the capital unofficially since 1814 meaning it took 169 years before the city got it’s official status as capital. This means that Intreeweek is older than the official legal status of Amsterdam as capital of the Netherlands! Isn’t that crazy?