Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands. It has been the capital of the kingdom since 1814. It is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country at the mouth of the rivers Amstel and IJ. Amsterdam is connected by the Nordsee Canal to the North Sea.

As of July 2020, the population of the municipality of Amsterdam is 869,709 people, together with the suburbs (city district) - 2.4 million inhabitants (as of January 2013). Amsterdam is part of the Randstad agglomeration, which is the 6th largest in Europe.

The name of the city comes from two words: "Amstel" - the name of the river and "dam" - "dam". In the 12th century it was a small fishing village, but during the Golden Age of the Netherlands, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world and a major trading center.

Amsterdam has over 100 kilometers of canals, about 90 islands and 1,500 bridges. The four main channels: Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht together form concentric half-rings that encircle the city. Because of this, the city is called the "Venice of the North".

The Amsterdam Defense Line is a 135 km ring of fortifications around the city and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The city is a place of concentration of various cultures - in April 2009, representatives of 177 nationalities lived here.

Amsterdam is also the financial and cultural capital of the Netherlands. Here are the headquarters of 7 of the 500 largest global companies, such as Philips and ING Groep. Also in the city center is the world's oldest stock exchange.

Greenpeace is headquartered in Amsterdam.

Many major global companies are based in Amsterdam or have their headquarters there, such as Uber, Netflix and Tesla.

Many attractions: the Rijksmuseum, the Vincent Van Gogh Museum, the City Museum, the Hermitage on the Amstel, the red light district (De Wallen) - annually attracts about 4.2 million tourists to the city.

Other important cultural centers are the NEMO Museum, the Tropical Museum, the Maritime Museum, Muidersloot Castle

Among the famous inhabitants of Amsterdam throughout history: the artists Rembrandt and Van Gogh, Anne Frank, the philosopher Benedict Spinoza.

In 2005, the "I amsterdam" brand was launched. The new symbol for Amsterdam, designed by the Dutch advertising agency KesselsKramer, plays on the grammatical construction I Am. The finding lies in the fact that “Am…” is at the same time the first letters of the city’s name and emphasizes the individualism of the brand: we are talking about each person individually, which makes the city special. In early December 2018, the letters Iamsterdam were removed from the square in front of the museums.