Mostly I enjoyed the Dutch architecture.  This was my third visit to Amsterdam and I still love this charming city. Here’s a bit of insight in the city’s history:

Centuries ago city inhabitants were taxed on the frontage of their houses. Needless to say, they built their homes narrow and tall.  So narrow were the homes, along with narrow and steep stairs, they used their windows to move furniture and stored goods.  This explains the wooden hoist beams you see at the top of each dwelling.  To keep the items being hoisted from damaging the brickwork, houses were built pitched forward.  Moving into or out of a home in Amsterdam is not for the faint of heart.

Rooftop gables began in the 16th Century with a step design.  Later, an Italian influence brought bell-shaped gables, and by the late 18th Century, the style converted to the clean lines of the French cornice.  Some homes have plaques noting the year the houses were built.  The oldest one I came across was a house in Alkmaar dated 1609.

To the right is a gable stone, or “gevelsteen,” a plaque bearing a bas-relief scene or emblem that symbolized the occupant’s name or profession.  Fewer than 900 of these plaques remain.