Oosterpark

A park that Amsterdam built for itself

Oosterpark is about twelve hectares of lawns, old trees and winding water in Amsterdam-Oost. It is open air, free and always open. Come for two things: the National Slavery Monument and the memorial to Theo van Gogh. Stay for the park itself, which is where the neighbourhood goes to sit, play and practise tai chi.

The park was laid out in 1891. It was the first large public park made by the city council. Earlier parks were smaller, like Sarphatipark and Wertheimpark, or came from private money, like Vondelpark. The designer was Leonard Springer, and he chose the English landscape style: curving paths, open grass and a pond with a small island, rather than straight lines.

What lay underneath

To make room, an old cemetery from 1866 had to move. It lay just behind where the Tropical Institute stands now. Families protested loudly. In the end they accepted a new site, the Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats, which opened in 1894 in the Watergraafsmeer. The ground here is soft and wet, and the park has been renovated several times. The latest big work began in 2011. It opened the park up on the northern side, so that old buildings along the Mauritskade, once fenced off behind raised ground, now stand inside the park. There was a fight over tree felling too. Residents and park users pushed back, and about a hundred trees were saved.

The two memorials

The National Slavery Monument remembers the abolition of slavery in the Netherlands on 1 July 1863. Erwin de Vries designed it. Queen Beatrix unveiled it on 1 July 2002. A year later the national institute for Dutch slavery history, NiNsee, opened. Every 1 July people gather here for Keti Koti, the day of remembrance and celebration. If you are here on that date, expect a crowd and a serious mood.

The second memorial is called De Schreeuw, The Scream, by Jeroen Henneman. It remembers the film maker and columnist Theo van Gogh, who was murdered nearby in 2004. It is a different kind of place: a reaction to a death that shook the country, set among the park's ordinary paths.

What to look for

Walk to the middle and find the bandstand, the Muziekkoepel, a municipal monument. In summer it hosts chamber music concerts. Near the pond, look for the small island and the way the water bends. This is the remains of a mill ditch from before the park existed.

On the north side there is a paddling pool designed by Aldo van Eyck. Around it stand the brick buildings of the former Sint Elisabeth Gesticht, now a hotel, with a chimney and a Lourdes grotto that are listed monuments.

Look up as well. Grey herons nest along the Linnaeusstraat side, close to the Royal Tropical Institute, which houses the Wereldmuseum. Hundreds of ring-necked parakeets live here. This is also the only place in the Netherlands where feral Alexandrine parakeets breed. You will hear them before you see them, loud and green in the branches.

If you come early, you may find tai chi lessons under way. They have run in the park every morning since 1986.