National Maritime Museum

The National Maritime Museum, known locally as Het Scheepvaartmuseum, is a massive, square building defined by its thick, light-colored walls and a modern, glass-paneled roof that covers its central courtyard with a geometric web inspired by old nautical charts. It was built in sixteen fifty-six as the Arsenal, or 's Lands Zeemagazijn, to serve as the storehouse for the Admiralty of Amsterdam. Sailors and shipwrights once came here to collect cannons, sails, and rope for the Dutch war fleet, while the vaulted cellars beneath the courtyard held forty thousand liters of rainwater to provide the ships with fresh drinking water.