Munttoren

Munttoren is an Amsterdam tower at the meeting point of the Amstel and Singel canals. It stands beside Muntplein, near the flower market and Kalverstraat. The tower’s octagonal brick upper section and open, lead-covered wooden spire rise above a busy bridge. Four clock faces mark the spire, while canals, shopfronts and passing pedestrians surround the surviving medieval landmark.

The structure began as part of Regulierspoort, a fortified city gate built between 1480 and 1487. A fire in 1618 destroyed most of the gate, leaving the guardhouse and part of one tower. Hendrick de Keyser designed the Amsterdam Renaissance tower rebuilt after the fire, preserving a fragment of the former city defences. During the Rampjaar in 1672, the neighbouring guardhouse temporarily minted coins when transporting precious metals became unsafe. Willem Springer replaced that building between 1885 and 1887 with a Neo-Renaissance guardhouse.

Pieter Hemony created the carillon in 1668, adapting an instrument first made for Amsterdam’s stock exchange. Thirty-eight bells now hang above the square, and traffic pollution has damaged many original Hemony bells. The mechanism plays a short melody every quarter hour, while live Saturday concerts bring the historic tower into the surrounding city.