The Arsenal

The ship in front of this arsenal is the "Amsterdam", a replica of a old ship used in the Dutch Golden Age for trading. It left Holland with 300 sailors on board and came back after a journey of 6 to 8 months with only 80 to 100 people left. The rest didn't survive the journey.

The building behind the ship is the "Scheepvaart Museum". This historic building dating from 1656 was designed by Daniel Stalpaert as a storehouse for the Admiralty of Amsterdam. It was built in the Golden Age, when Amsterdam was the largest port and market place in the world.

The storehouse held cannons, sails, flags and sailing equipment stored for the war fleet. The building is 3 stories high, each one for supplying the decks of the warships. As you can imagine, these ships were huge, almost twice as big as the trading ships, like the one in front.