The Oudezijds Voorburgwal is one of the most central canals in Amsterdam’s Grachtengordel. It is part of the De Wallen old town quarter and hence also of Amsterdam’s Red Light District, the Rosse Buurt. There has been prostitution in the area since the late medieval times and though it was banned during some periods it never dissappeared. Today there are about 300 red light windows in the area (also visible in the panorama above), as well as several sex shops, a sex museum, some cannabis coffeeshops etc, all of which attracts a large number of tourists every day. To read more about the district and the social backgrounds of the Red Light District check the Wikipedia site for De Wallen.
This front of typical Amsterdam gabled houses along the Oudezijds Voorburgwal stretches from the Oudekennissteeg on the left to the Sint Jansbrug on the right. There are about 100 national listed buildings on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal, including Amsterdam’s oldest church, De Oude Kerk. The small alley visible next to the blue lighted window is the Kreupelsteeg. This unusual view of the iced Gracht (canal) was taken in february 2012.
This panorama of Amsterdam was presented in week 5 of our 101 weeks 101 cities of europe project.
Update: In the details section on the right we added some stereographic projections of this panorama, so called little planets or miniplanets. These are created by projecting a panorama onto a sphere.
