★★★★★ 5.0
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Museum Van Loon
Workers are still discovering 400-year-old secrets behind these walls at Keizersgracht 672, where Rembrandt's star pupil Ferdinand Bol once mixed his paints in 1672. But here's what'll blow your mind - those bedroom doors you see aren't real! The 18th-century Van Loon family was so obsessed with perfect symmetry they painted the actual doors to match the walls and created fake doors where you'd expect them to be. Standing here, you're looking at the only place in all of the Netherlands where you can see the original trinity intact - canal house, formal garden, and coach house, exactly as wealthy merchants planned it. That brass staircase spiraling up inside? It's the most elaborate rococo banister in the country, and the basement once housed fifteen servants who polished silver in their own scullery room. Oh, and that magnificent copper beech in the garden? The Van Loons planted it in 1884 - same year they moved in after co-founding the Dutch East India Company made them ridiculously wealthy.
Did You Know?
- The first resident of Museum Van Loon was Ferdinand Bol, a celebrated artist and direct pupil of Rembrandt, making the house not only a grand canal residence but also a historic artist’s home, with Bol’s works now displayed at the Rijksmuseum.
- The house features a stunning 17th-century garden, carefully restored in period style and enclosed by the original coach house gable, offering visitors a rare glimpse into the leisure spaces of Amsterdam’s elite during the Dutch Golden Age.
- Look closely for painted fake doors from the 18th century—these clever trompe-l'œil features were added to maintain visual symmetry in the interior, reflecting the period’s obsession with balance and harmony in domestic architecture.