Amsterdam is celebrating its 750th birthday on Monday with festive events throughout the city, including an evening concert at the famous Rijksmuseum to be attended by members of its royal family.
Although the city is much older as a settlement, dating back to as early as 1170, the official date of founding is October 27, 1275, which is when Count Floris V, the then ruler of Holland and Zeeland, granted residents the right to transport goods through Dutch waters toll-free.
What celebrations are happening in Amsterdam?
The day’s festivities, which come at the end of months of events marking the city’s 750th anniversary, kicked off at 7:50 a.m. with the cutting of a 75-meter-long (82-yard-long) cream cake by Mayor Femke Halsema on Dam Square, Amsterdam’s central plaza.
Slices of the cake, which was decorated in Amsterdam’s colors of red and white and bore the city’s coat of arms, were then delivered to all city districts so that residents could partake of it.
Art exhibitions and musical events are also taking place across the city to mark the day.
The celebrations will culminate in a large concert outside the Netherlands’ national museum, the Rijksmuseum.
King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Crown Princess Amalia will be among the guests at the concert, which will feature leading Dutch artists performing under a spacious tent on the museum square.
Year of festivities
The events on Monday top off what has been a series of happenings throughout the year to celebrate the 750th anniversary.
One highlight was a festival held on Amsterdam’s ring road in the summer.
The highway was closed for 24 hours so that residents were able to stroll, eat, drink and dance there.
The festival even saw the marriages of 75 couples, while a temporary forest of 750 trees was planted.
Amsterdam, famous among other things for its canals, or grachten, and the monumental buildings lining them, has a population of around 900,000 in the city proper.
The city, situated at the mouth of the Amstel River, became a major world port during the so-called Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, and was also home to famous artists such as Rembrandt and Van Gogh.
Its prosperity did, however, bear the stain of its involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. It was a major port of destination for Dutch slave ships from the 17th century on until the Netherlands ended its participation in the trade in 1814 at the British government’s request.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse
