★★★★★ 5.0
Discover
Anne Frank House
That chestnut tree stretching over the courtyard has been watching this building's secrets for nearly three centuries. You're standing before 263 Prinsengracht, a 17th-century canal house that began life in 1635 as a private residence with horse stables right here in the front warehouse. But here's what most people miss – this narrow façade you're looking at isn't original! It was completely redesigned in 1740, and that's when they demolished the rear annex... only to rebuild it in 1739 as what we now call the Secret Annex. Otto Frank chose this building in 1940 for his pectin business, but he had no idea it would become the world's most famous hiding place. When you step inside, you'll walk the same path Anne took on July 6th, 1942 – through that bookcase that still conceals the entrance. The rooms remain deliberately empty, exactly as Otto Frank requested, because as he said, "They took everything out during the war, and I want to keep it that way."
Did You Know?
- The Anne Frank House is not just a single building—it is a complex of three adjacent 17th-century canal houses (Prinsengracht 263–267), with the famous 'Secret Annex' hidden at the rear of 263, originally invisible from the street and only accessible via a movable bookcase, preserving the exact layout described in Anne’s diary and offering a powerful, immersive experience of the family’s hiding place.
- After the war, the building was nearly demolished for commercial development, but a public campaign led by a Dutch newspaper and a protest outside the building saved it; Otto Frank then co-founded the Anne Frank Foundation in 1957 to restore and preserve the site, which opened as a museum in 1960 and now attracts over a million visitors annually, making it one of the most visited museums in the Netherlands.
- The museum displays not only Anne’s original diary but also personal belongings, documents, and photographs of all eight people who hid in the Annex, as well as pencil marks on the wall where Otto Frank tracked his daughters’ growth—authentic, moving details that bring the history to life for visitors of all ages, especially families and children.