The Castello Planofficially entitled ''Afbeeldinge van de Stadt Amsterdam in Nieuw Neederlandt'' ( Dutch, "Picture of the City of Amsterdam in New Netherland")is an early city map of what is now the Financial District of

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

from an original of 1660. It was created by Jacques Cortelyou ( 1625–1693), a surveyor in what was then called

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

later renamed by the settlers of the

Province of New York The Province of New York was a British proprietary colony and later a royal colony on the northeast coast of North America from 1664 to 1783. It extended from Long Island on the Atlantic, up the Hudson River and Mohawk River valleys to ...

settlement as

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, with its

Fort Amsterdam Fort Amsterdam, (later, Fort George among other names) was a fortification on the southern tip of Manhattan Island at the confluence of the Hudson River, Hudson and East River, East rivers in what is now New York City. The fort and the island ...

, the center of trade and government. - A similar map, however, which is presently in the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

is a copy created around 1665 to 1670 by an unknown draughtsman from a lost Cortelyou original. - Around 1667, cartographer Joan Blaeu (1596–1673) bound the "Castello Plan" to an

atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

, together with other hand-crafted New Amsterdam depictions. He sold the atlas to Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. This transaction most likely happened in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, as it has yet to be proven that Blaeu ever set foot in

New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

. The plan remained in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, where in 1900 it was discovered at the Villa di Castello near

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. It was printed in 1916 and received the name "Castello Plan" at that time. It is covered extensively in Volume 2 of

Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (April 11, 1867 – December 18, 1944) was an American architect. Stokes was a pioneer in social housing who co-authored the New York State Tenement House Act, 1901 New York tenement house law. For twenty years he work ...

' six-volume survey, '' The Iconography of Manhattan Island'' (1915–1928). A Castello Plan Monument is installed at Lower Manhattan's Peter Minuit Plaza. On modern-day Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn's Ditmas Park neighborhood, there is a tavern named The Castello Plan. The map itself, normally kept in

at the

Laurentian Library The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze u ...

, was exhibited at the New-York Historical Society in 2024.

Citations

Sources

* * {{cite book , last=Stokes , first=Isaac Newton Phelps , title=The iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 , quote=compiled from original sources and illustrated by photo-intaglio reproductions of important maps, plans, views, and documents in public and private collections , volume=II , author-link=Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes , publisher=Robert H. Dodd , location=New York , year=1915 , isbn= , url=https://archive.org/details/iconographyofma_02stok/page/n13/mode/2up , ref=stokes1915b

External links

''Iconography of Manhattan Island''
from Columbia University Libraries
Overlay of the Castello Plan on current Manhattan

Zoomable version of the Castello Plan

3D model based on the Castello Plan

New Amsterdam History Center

The Castello Plan tavern
History of New York City Maps of cities New York (state) maps 17th-century maps and globes Maps of New York City

See also

Citations

Sources

External links