11 Iconic Buildings to Explore in North Holland

The Anne Frank House is a writer's house and biographical museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank. It preserves the hiding place, has a permanent exhibition on the life and times of Anne Frank, and has an exhibition space about all forms of persecution and discrimination. The building is located on a canal called the Prinsengracht, close to the Westerkerk, in central Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Brouwerij 't IJ is a small brewery in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is located in a former bath house named Funen, next to the De Gooyer windmill. The brewery was opened by Kaspar Peterson, a former musician, in October 1985 and was one of several small breweries that opened in cities around the Netherlands in response to consumers' dissatisfaction with beer brewed by the larger companies. It brews eight standard beers and three seasonal beers, besides limited edition beers.

The De Gooyer Windmill in Amsterdam is an impressive eight-sided wooden mill built upon a stone foundation and is the tallest wooden windmill in the Netherlands. The Gooyer consists of a stone foundation topped by a wooden octagonal body. The mill is owned by the municipality of Amsterdam and is not open to visitors. Although the blades are functional, they no longer operate any grinding mechanism.

Grand Hotel Amrath Amsterdam is a 5-star deluxe hotel situated in the monumental Shipping House. Housed in a 100-year-old building that served as HQ for a number of shipping companies and is now a national monument. Its zany design sparked a whole new school of Dutch architecture. Period features abound, bedrooms and bathrooms are roomy, there’s a quiet bar, and you’re close to Centraal Station.

The Heineken Experience is an attraction located at Heineken's® first built brewery in Amsterdam's city centre. This is a historic brewery and corporate visitor center for the internationally distributed Dutch pilsner, Heineken beer. The industrial facility was built as the first Heineken brewery in 1867, serving as the company's primary brewing facility until 1988 when a more modern, larger facility was constructed on the outskirts of the city.

Het Schip housing complex is a world-famous example of the Amsterdam School. The complex in the architectural style of the Amsterdam School was designed by Michel de Klerk in 1919. It originally contained 102 homes for the working class, a small meeting hall, a post office, and an elementary school. Since 2001, the former school and post office are used as a museum about the Amsterdam School.

IJburg is a residential neighbourhood under construction in Amsterdam, Netherlands. is situated in the IJmeer and is being built on artificial islands which have been raised from the lake. The Haveneiland, Rieteilanden, Steigereiland and Centrumeiland are already inhabited as of 2004. It is part of the municipality Amsterdam-Oost and also contains the Diemerpark, one of the city's largest parks.

Muiden Castle is a castle in the Netherlands, located at the mouth of the Vecht river, some 15 kilometers southeast of Amsterdam, in Muiden, where it flows into what used to be the Zuiderzee. It is one of the better known castles in the Netherlands and featured in many television shows set in the Middle Ages.

This is a 17th-century canal house, house church, and museum in the city center of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Catholic Church was built on the top three floors of the canal house during the 1660s. It is an important example of a "schuilkerk", or "clandestine church" in which Catholics and other religious dissenters from the seventeenth century Dutch Reformed Church, unable to worship in public, held services.

The Royal Palace Amsterdam is King Willem-Alexander’s official reception palace. In addition, the Palace is open to visitors as much as possible. The Palace is the largest and most prestigious building from the seventeenth century, making it one of The Netherlands’ most important monuments.The palace was built as a city hall during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. The building became the royal palace of King Louis Napoleon and later of the Dutch Royal House.

The Oude Church is the is Amsterdam’s oldest building founded circa 1213 and consecrated in 1306 by the bishop of Utrecht with Saint Nicolas as its patron saint. After the Reformation in 1578, it became a Calvinist church, which it remains today. It stands in De Wallen, now Amsterdam's main red-light district. The square surrounding the church is the Oudekerksplein.