Vondelpark

A park for walking, not for show

The Vondelpark is Amsterdam's big city park, and locals use it every day. People jog, cycle, read on the grass, push prams and carry beers to the lawns. It covers 47 hectares and runs long and thin from the Stadhouderskade to the Amstelveenseweg. About ten million visits are made here each year.

It is worth the walk because it slows you down. The paths curve, the ponds appear and disappear behind trees, and you stop noticing the streets around you. That was the plan. The park is laid out in the English landscape style, so that a visitor feels they have walked into nature.

In summer there is a free open-air theatre, with music, dance and cabaret. And there is a Picasso on a lawn.

How it began

The park started as a business idea. In 1864 a group of well-off citizens, led by Christiaan Pieter van Eeghen, bought a strip of wet peat meadow at the edge of the city. They formed an association to build a park for riding and walking. The houses that would later go up around it were meant to be worth more for having a park next door.

They hired the Zochers, father and son, who designed many parks in the Netherlands. The first part opened in 1865 as the Nieuwe Park, the New Park. Members came in free. Other people paid to enter.

The name came from a statue. The architect Pierre Cuypers, who lived on the nearby Vondelstraat, raised money for a monument to the poet and playwright Joost van den Vondel. It was unveiled in 1867, with a pedestal by Cuypers and a statue by Louis Royer. People soon called the place Vondel's Park, and in 1880 Vondelpark became the official name.

Cycling caused arguments here as early as the 1880s and 1890s. In the Second World War the German occupiers took over the park. From mid-November 1944 it was closed to the public, while Amsterdammers desperate for firewood cut down trees. In 1953 the association could no longer pay for the upkeep and gave the park to the city. In the 1960s and 1970s it became a place where, as people say, almost everything was allowed. It has been a national monument since 1996.

What to look for

Look for the statue of Vondel himself, then let the paths take you.

The Blauwe Theehuis is a round, modernist tea house from 1937, close to a small blue bridge. It is easy to spot and a good place to sit. The rose garden dates from 1936. The Vondelparkpaviljoen, built in 1878, is the large building at the edge of the park. It was the Filmmuseum for decades and now houses Vondel CS.

Listen for the parakeets. Rose-ringed parakeets have lived wild in the park since the 1970s, and you will hear them before you see their green flashes in the trees.

The open-air theatre runs from June to August. Entry is free, and a small donation is welcome. Even if nothing is on, the stage and its lawn are pleasant to walk past. Look at the benches too. The newer cast-iron ones carry motifs of local plants and animals, and many carry small plaques from people who adopted them.

Picasso's fish stands on a lawn, a cut-out figure from 1965. Joggers pass it without a glance. Give it a minute.