The Amstelpark is a park in

Amsterdam-Zuid Amsterdam-Zuid (; ''Amsterdam South'') is a borough (''stadsdeel'') of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The borough was formed in 2010 as a merger of the former boroughs Oud-Zuid and Zuideramstel. The borough has almost 138,000 inhabitants (2013). With ...

. The park includes a labyrinth, a café, a restaurant, two galleries, an

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

, a petting zoo and a mini-golf course.

Background

The Amstelpark was built and opened for the 1972 Floriade gardening exhibition. The park has its own train line, the Amstel train, which runs through the Rosarium, the

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

valley and the Riekermolen. The park contains a variety of plant species from around the world, including a "rhododendron valley" with about 139 species of

rhododendrons ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

, blooming in April and May. At one point, the park lost about 30 percent of its larger trees due to disease. The park contains a Japanese Garden, which was renovated in 2001 at the time of the celebration of the 400-year relationship between the Netherlands and Japan. The Riekermolen windmill lies south of the Amstelpark. Built in 1636 it originally stood in the Riekerpolder near Sloten. In 1932 it was replaced by a motorized pumping station. The mill was removed in 1956 when the Nieuwe Meer was enlarged as a sand pit. The city council decided to rebuild the mill on the west side of the Amstel in 1961. A statue of

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

is located next to the windmill. He often sketched the landscape along 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 ri ...

river.

External links

Amstel Park information
{{Parks and squares in Amsterdam Parks in Amsterdam Amsterdam-Zuid 1972 establishments in the Netherlands