The Munttoren (; "Mint Tower") or Munt () is a tower 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 ...

, Netherlands. It stands on the busy Muntplein square, where 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, to which the rive ...

river and the

Singel The Singel () is one of the canals of Amsterdam. The Singel encircled Amsterdam in the Middle Ages, serving as a moat around the city until 1585, when Amsterdam expanded beyond the Singel. The canal runs from the IJ bay, near the Central St ...

canal meet, near the flower market and the eastern end of the

Kalverstraat The Kalverstraat (, ) is a busy shopping street of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The street runs roughly North-South for about 750 meters, from Dam Square to Muntplein square. The Kalverstraat is the most expensive shopping stree ...

shopping street.

History

Eerste Regulierspoort te Amsterdam by Simon Frisius

The tower was originally part of the Regulierspoort, one of the main gates in Amsterdam's medieval city wall. The gate, built in the years 1480, consisted of two towers and a guard house. After the gate went up in flames in a 1618 fire, only the guard house and part of the western tower remained standing. The tower was then rebuilt in Amsterdam

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style in 1620, with an eight-sided top half and elegant open spire designed by

Hendrick de Keyser Hendrick de Keyser (15 May 1565 – 15 May 1621) was a Dutch sculptor, merchant in Belgium bluestone, and architect who was instrumental in establishing a late Renaissance form of Mannerism changing into Baroque. Most of his works appeared in Ams ...

, featuring a clockwork with four clockfaces and a

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...

of bells. The name of the tower refers to the fact that the guard house on the side of it was used to mint coins in the 17th century. In the ''

Rampjaar In Dutch history, the year 1672 is referred to as the (; Disaster Year). In May 1672, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and its peripheral conflict the Third Anglo-Dutch War, France, supported by Münster and Cologne, invaded a ...

'' ("year of disaster") of 1672, when both

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

declared war on the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

and French troops occupied much of the country, silver and gold could no longer be safely transported to

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

and

Enkhuizen Enkhuizen () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. History Enkhuizen, like Hoorn and Amsterdam, was one of the harbour-towns of the VOC, from where overseas trade ...

(where coins were normally minted), so the guard house of the Munttoren was temporarily used to mint coin. The present guard house is not the original medieval structure but a 19th-century fantasy. The original guard house, which had survived the fire of 1618 relatively unscathed, was replaced with a new building during 1885–1887 in

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

style. The architect was Willem Springer. An underpass between the tower and the building was made during the 1938-1939 renovation. The Munttoren received new extra foundations to prevent it from sagging during construction of the

Noord/Zuidlijn The Amsterdam Metro () is a rapid transit system serving Amsterdam, Netherlands, and extending to the surrounding List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipalities of Diemen and Ouder-Amstel. Until 2019, it also served the municipality o ...

, the new metro line. The city has allocated 1.9 million euros for this purpose, according to a May 17, 2006 report in the newspaper''

Het Parool ''Het Parool'' () is an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper. It was first published on 10 February 1941 as a resistance paper during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945). In English, its name means ''The Password'' or ''The Motto' ...

''.

Carillon

The

was made in 1668 by Pieter Hemony, who added new

bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

s to the instrument that he and his brother François had made earlier for the tower of the Amsterdam stock exchange in 1651. He also made a bronze drum for automatic music to announce the strike of the hour and half hour bell. It also chimes on the quarter with a short melody. The old drum is still functional. In 1873, the original baton keyboard was removed from the carillon, in favor of changes to the clockwork mechanism. Since that year the Munt clock also had a minute arm. In 1960 when the carillon was restored by

Petit & Fritsen Royal Bellfounders Petit & Fritsen, located in Aarle-Rixtel, the Netherlands, is a former foundry, one of the oldest family-owned businesses in the Netherlands, with the foundry dating back to 1660. Petit & Fritsen was a foundry that cast Bell ( ...

from Aarle Rixtel, a baton keyboard as a manual playing system was re-installed. Some of the original smaller Hemony bells have been damaged over the years by pollution from the traffic round the tower and have been replaced by new bells in 1959 and 1993. The original smaller Hemony bells are now on display in the

Amsterdam Museum The Amsterdam Museum, known until 2010 as the Amsterdam Historical Museum, is an Amsterdam-based museum dedicated to the city's past and present. Due to the renovation of its main location, the museum is temporarily located in the Amstelhof on the ...

. The current carillon consists of 38 bells (2 more than the original carillon had). Only 13 original Hemony bells remained. A mechanism causes the bells to chime every quarter of an hour. Twice a year the pins on the drum are changed by the city

carillonneur A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...

. Weekly on Saturdays, between 2 and 3 p.m., Gideon Bodden, the Amsterdam city carillonneur gives a live concert on the bells.

Trivia

* Just after the renovation around 1961, cinema organist played weekly on the Munt bells and even made a recording of the bells together with the City Theater orchestra directed by Lex van Weren. This EP, titled ''It's in the air'',Listen here to: Its in the air. Bernard Drukker on the Munt carillon
/ref> was released by Phillips Records. * Scale models of the tower are exhibited at

Madurodam Madurodam () is a miniature park and tourist attraction in the Scheveningen district of The Hague in the Netherlands. It is home to a range of 1:25 scale model replicas of famous Dutch landmarks, historical cities and large developments. The par ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

and at

Mini-Europe Mini-Europe is a miniature park located in the Bruparck entertainment park, at the foot of the Atomium, in Brussels, Belgium. Mini-Europe has reproductions of monuments in the European Union and other countries within the continent of Europe on ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Gallery

File:Munttoren Amsterdam.jpg, The Munttoren as seen from the river

dusk Dusk occurs at the darkest stage of twilight, or at the very end of astronomical twilight after sunset and just before nightfall.''The Random House College Dictionary'', "dusk". At predusk, during early to intermediate stages of twilight, enoug ...

File:AmstelAmsterdamNederland.jpg, The Munttoren as seen from the

in 1900 File:Munt2.jpg, The bells inside the tower with clappers for manual playing on the baton keyboard File:Stadsgezicht met water en toren - Amsterdam - 20319990 - RCE.jpg, View of the tower around 1900 seen from the Singel (now flower market) File:Huizen, toren en water met schepen - Amsterdam - 20329161 - RCE.jpg, Houses around the Munttoren around 1880 seen from the east.

History

Carillon

Trivia

Gallery

Sources

Further reading