The Amstelhof ( en, Amstel court), was a

retirement home A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home or old age home, although ''old people's home'' can also refer to a nursing home – is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Typically, each person or couple in ...

that is the

Hermitage Amsterdam Hermitage Amsterdam is a branch museum of the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, Russia, located on the banks of the Amstel river in Amsterdam. The museum is located in the former Amstelhof, a classical style building from 1681. The dependenc ...

museum. It was built near the

Amstel The Amstel () is a river in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It flows from the Aarkanaal and Drecht in Nieuwveen northwards, passing Uithoorn, Amstelveen, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, to the IJ in Amsterdam. Annually, the r ...

river in 1682 by the

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

after having received an inheritance of the rich merchant Barent Helleman. He died on 18 October 1680 and left approximately 90,000

guilders Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' "gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Emp ...

to the church. The city of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

donated the land on which it was built.

Design

The building was designed by city architect Hans van Petersom. It has a

classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

facade on the Amstel with a length 102 m, at the time the longest facade of Amsterdam. It has a symmetric map with a large

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

. Around two secondary courtyard lie wings with rooms for the ladies: the ''chambrettes''. The centrally located monumental entrance leads to a fake door. The mayors at the time found an entrance with steps a necessity for a building of such stature. Directly behind the door is the church hall, which could not serve as entrance. Above the door the original name "Diaconate Old Women's Home anno 1681" ( nl, Diaconie Oude Vrouwen Huys anno 1681) is written.

Retirement home

At its opening in 1682 the home accommodated 400 ladies. Men weren't allowed until 1817. In order to qualify, women had to be at least 50 years of age, a resident of

for 15 years and member of the church for 10 years. After more than three centuries as retirement home, the last inhabitants left in 2007 to two new properties in

Diemen Diemen () is a town and municipality with a population of in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is located approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) southeast of Amsterdam's city centre, within the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Etymology The name ...

and

Nieuw-Vennep Nieuw-Vennep is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It's located near the capital city Amsterdam as well as Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It has a population of 31,415 (2021), and is a part of the municipality of Haarlemmermeer, which ran ...

. Despite various modifications over the years, it no longer met current standards.

Hermitage

Between 2007 and 2009 the building was extensively remodelled to become a museum, the Hermitage Amsterdam, a dependency of the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. The museum was opened on 20 June 2009 by Dutch

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husban ...

and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

References

Hermitage Amsterdam official website

Amstelhof on bma.amsterdam.nl (in Dutch)

External links

Hermitage Amsterdam * {{in lang, nl}
Amstelhof / Hermitage
City of Amsterdam Museums in Amsterdam Buildings and structures completed in 1682 1682 establishments in the Dutch Republic