A capital that dug three great canals in a half-moon and turned a swamp into the best-organized trading city on earth, a cathedral town where a tornado tore the nave from the tallest tower in the country and left a square between them, and a small canal city that gave the world Vermeer's light, the martyr who became a nation, and the blue-and-white porcelain a whole continent copied. A country that argued its land out of the sea, then decorated it.
Cities
In-depth reads
Amsterdam's Jewish Quarter and Plantage: Reading Four Centuries in the Street
Companion·6 min
Van Gogh Museum: What to See, Floor by Floor, and a One-Hour Plan
Cultural·9 min
Avercamp's Winter Landscape with Skaters: Hunting the Small Stories
Companion·5 min
The Night Watch: Why It Is Called That, and What Was Cut Off
Companion·7 min