The Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace) was built in 1648-1655 as Amsterdam's town hall. King Louis I of Holland, Napoleon's brother, adopted it as the palace in 1806. The palace is on Dam Square, the site of the original Amstel River dam that Amsterdam is named for.
The Oude Kerk (Old Church) is from 1306. Holland and the Oude Kerk switched from Catholic to Calvinist in 1578. The floor is made up of metal burial slabs, some decorative like this one.
The Oude Kerk's stained glass window celebrating the Treaty of Munster, from 1655.
The medieval center of Amsterdam, including the Koninklijk Paleis and the Oude Kerk, is surrounded by a ring of three canals, dug during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century.
Canal houses were taxed by the width of the house, so they are narrow, tall, and deep. Eyewitness Travel says of this house that Russian tsar Peter the Great "...sailed up Keizergracht to No. 317, the home of his friend Christoffel Brants. Legend says the tsar got drunk and kept the mayor waiting while at a civic reception."
