West Indisch Huis

West Indisch Huis stands in Amsterdam as a historic architectural complex built in 1617. Its ground floor held a meat market, while the upper floor served as a militia waiting room. Two wings later enclosed a central courtyard.

Dutch West India Company meetings took place here from 1623 until 1647. In 1625, governors ordered a fort on Manhattan Island from these rooms, linking Amsterdam to New York’s colonial origins. The basement held Piet Hein’s captured silver fleet, valued at eleven to fifteen million guilders. After 1660, the premises became a gentlemen’s hotel, then an orphanage and elderly home in 1825.

A fire damaged the complex in 1975, and restoration followed between 1978 and 1981. Today, offices, conferences, weddings, and cultural events animate the municipal monument. Authors, lecturers, and scientists meet here through John Adams Institute programmes, founded in 1987. The courtyard fountain bears a bronze statue of Peter Stuyvesant, a lasting link to New Amsterdam.