Summer Exhibition: ‘Amsterdam Town Hall and the House of Orange’

The Royal Palace of Amsterdam was built in the seventeenth century as the Town Hall of Amsterdam. The prestigious Town Hall of Amsterdam, designed by Jacob van Campen, was heralded in the seventeenth century as ‘the eighth wonder of the world”. The colossal building was the largest vernacular building which had ever been constructed until then. Now, some 350 years later, the former Town Hall is a Royal Palace, and is used for official events by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. The very many highlights of the rich history of the building formed the subject of the 2005 Summer Exhibition. Wandering around the many rooms of this former Town Hall you will meet the Mayors who governed the city from this building during the seventeenth century. Then came King Louis Napoleon, the brother of the French Emperor, who transformed the building in 1808 into a Royal Palace and who furnished it with a valuable collection of Empire style furniture. The History of the House of Orange is shown from King William I through to the celebrations of the Silver Jubilee of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix, held on April 29, 2005. Short documentaries, paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs were on display in the ‘islands of time’. They reflected the past and the present in colourful images.