Oude Kerk, Amsterdam

Burgwallen Oude Zijde is a neighborhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The Oudekerksplein (English: Old Church's Square) is a square in the centre of Amsterdam. It is named after the 14th-century church Oude Kerk which dominates the square. The Oudekerksplein is wedged between the Warmoesstraat street and Oudezijds Voorburgwal canal. From the square, the Oudekerksbrug bridge crosses the Oudezijds Voorburgwal canal and continues eastwards, through the Oudekennissteeg and Molensteeg alleys, towards the Oudezijds Achterburgwal and Zeedijk. Originally the Oudekerksplein was a graveyard. In 1655, the graveyard was cleared and moved to a new location beyond the city limits, creating the present square. The Oudekerksplein lies at the heart of the red-light district of De Wallen. Along the square are some 35 windows from behind which prostitutes offer their services. As part of the so-called Project 1012 (first presented in 2007), the Amsterdam city government is trying to reduce the number of prostitutes on Oudekerksplein. The city wants to remove all brothels from the square and replace them with restaurants, shops, artists' workshops, and such. As part of the plans, the cannabis coffee shop on Oudekerksplein would also be closed. In March 2019, it was announced that the city is to ban guided tours of the red-light district from January 2020. There are reported to be over 1,000 such tours passing through Oudekerksplein each week.A statue titled "Belle", honouring the prostitutes of the world, was placed on the square in 2007. The plaque on this statue reads (in English): "Respect sex workers all over the world". The street also has a bronze relief of a hand caressing a female breast. The sculpture was set in the cobblestone in February 1993 by an anonymous artist. The 1968 Dutch documentary film Rondom het Oudekerksplein ("Around the Oudekerksplein") gave an impression of what life in the red-light district was like in the 1960s.

De Wallen (Dutch pronunciation: [də ˈʋɑlə(n)]) or De Walletjes (Dutch pronunciation: [də ˈʋɑləcəs]) was the largest and best known red-light district in Amsterdam prior to being temporarily shut down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It consists of a network of alleys containing approximately three hundred one-room cabins rented by prostitutes who offer their sexual services from behind a window or glass door, typically illuminated with red lights and blacklight. Window prostitution is the most visible and typical kind of red-light district sex work in Amsterdam. De Wallen, together with the prostitution areas Singelgebied and Ruysdaelkade, form the Rosse Buurt (red-light areas) of Amsterdam. Of these De Wallen is the oldest and largest area. It is one of the city's major tourist attractions and the government of Amsterdam is examining ways to limit tourist numbers.The area also has a number of sex shops, sex theatres, peep shows, a sex museum, a cannabis museum, and a number of coffee shops that sell cannabis.

Warmoesstraat ('Chard Street') is one of the oldest streets in Amsterdam, running parallel to Damrak from Nieuwebrugsteeg to Dam Square. Its origins are in the 13th century. In the 16th and 17th century it was the shopping street. The poet Joost van den Vondel sold silk stockings here.Today, the busy Warmoesstraat has a variety shops, bars, restaurants, cheap hotels, coffee shops and sex boutiques. The artist run W139 art space is also located on this street. It is located adjacent to the red-light district. The Warmoesstraat-area is also known as the Leather area as there are many cruise and fetish bars and bars with darkrooms.

The Queen's Head is a gay bar located at Zeedijk 20 in the centre of Amsterdam. It opened in 1998 and is known for its drag queen bingo evenings.

Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (OLHOS; English: Our Lord in the Attic) is a 17th-century canal house, house church, and museum in the city center of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Catholic Church was built on the top three floors of the canal house during the 1660s. It is an important example of a "schuilkerk", or "clandestine church" in which Catholics and other religious dissenters from the seventeenth century Dutch Reformed Church, unable to worship in public, held services. The church has been open as a museum since 28 April 1888, and has 85,000 visitors annually.

The Beurs van Berlage is a building on the Damrak, in the centre of Amsterdam. It was designed as a commodity exchange by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage and constructed between 1896 and 1903. It influenced many modernist architects, in particular functionalists and the Amsterdam School. It is now used as a venue for concerts, exhibitions and conferences. The building is constructed of red brick, with an iron and glass roof, and stone piers, lintels and corbels. Its entrance is under a 40-metre (130 ft) high clock tower, while inside lie three large multi-storey halls formerly used as trading floors, with offices and communal facilities grouped around them. The aim of the architect was to modify the styles of the past by emphasizing sweeping planes and open plan interiors. It has stylistic similarities with some earlier buildings, for instance St Pancras station and the work of H. H. Richardson in America, or the Castell dels Tres Dragons, Barcelona, by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. True to its nineteenth-century roots, it maintains the use of ornament in a civic structure. On 2 February 2002 the civil ceremony of the wedding of King Willem-Alexander and Máxima Zorreguieta took place in the Beurs van Berlage. The Beurs van Berlage has a café located on the Beursplein side and the tower is also open to the public.

The Oudezijds Voorburgwal, often abbreviated to OZ Voorburgwal, is a street and canal in De Wallen in the center of Amsterdam. The OZ Voorburgwal runs from the Grimburgwal in the south to the Zeedijk in the north, where it changes into the Oudezijds Kolk, which drains into the IJ. The bridge over the OZ Voorburgwal between Damstraat and Oude Doelenstraat (bridge 204) forms a clear dividing line between the noisy northern Wallendeel and the quiet southern part. It is one of the most famous streets of the Red Light District, full of sex shops, window prostitutes, peep shows, brothels, bars and coffee shops. The Bulldog has several branches and a hotel here. The canal is also lined with monumental canal houses from the Dutch Golden Age, and the remains of the many monasteries that were located here in the Middle Ages.

The Damrak is an avenue and partially filled in canal at the centre of Amsterdam, running between Amsterdam Centraal in the north and Dam Square in the south. It is the main street where people arriving at the station enter the centre of Amsterdam. Also it is one of the two GVB tram routes from the station into the centre, with lines 4, 9, 16, and 25 running down it. It is also on the route of the North/South Line (Amsterdam metro line) being constructed between the existing metro station at Centraal Station and the new Rokin station. The street was located on a rak (reach), a straight part of the Amstel river near a dam; hence the name. In the 19th century, a section of it was filled in. Because of the former stock exchange building, the monumental Beurs van Berlage, and several other buildings related to financial activities erected there in the early 20th century, the term "Damrak" has come to be a synonym for the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in the same way "Wall Street" is synonymous with the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. The Beurs van Berlage now serves as a concert and exhibition hall. Today, the area is known for its restaurants, bars, and tourist shops. Its canals serve as a busy area for canal boats, as well.

The Oudezijds Achterburgwal, often abbreviated to OZ Achterburgwal, is a street and canal in De Wallen, the red light district in the center of Amsterdam.

The Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum is a museum located in De Wallen, Amsterdam, Netherlands. According to the museum, more than two million visitors have visited the exhibition since it opened in 1985. Dedicated to cannabis and its many uses, the museum offers visitors information about the historical and modern uses of cannabis for medicinal, spiritual and cultural purposes. The museum also focuses on how hemp can be used for agricultural and industrial purposes, even including clothing accessories and cosmetic products made from hemp fiber. In 2012 the museum opened a second location in Barcelona, the Hash Marihuana Cáñamo & Hemp Museum. The Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum is located at Oudezijds Achterburgwal 148, open daily, and costs €9 ($11.50) per adult (children under 13 are free when accompanied by an adult).

The Sexmuseum or the Temple of Venus (Dutch: Venustempel) is a sex museum located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The museum opened in 1985. It had 675,000 visitors in 2015, making it one of the most visited museums in the Netherlands.The museum features an extensive collection of pictures, recordings, photos, paintings and artifacts which allow visitors to explore the evolution of human sexuality throughout the ages. Exhibits present the history of sex and how it has evolved over the centuries. From Cleopatra's regiment of men, to the Romans’ insatiable appetite for sex, to the repressive Middle Ages, visitors are presented with how sex was viewed throughout historical civilizations.