Vondelpark

The Vondelpark was laid out from 1865 as a private venture - a group of wealthy Amsterdammers bought marshy land outside the city for a riding and walking park, funded by subscription, with Jan David Zocher and his son designing it in the English landscape manner, curving paths, water and grouped planting rather than avenues. The city took it over in 1953. It runs to forty-seven hectares in the middle of the built-up area and gets around ten million visits a year, which shows. Its structural problem is the ground: the park sits on peat that compresses as it drains, so the whole thing subsides by roughly a centimetre a year, and the bridges, paths and water levels have to be corrected in a long-running renovation. It has an open-air theatre with free summer performances, the Blauwe Theehuis of 1937, and skating and running that never stop.

History

In 1864 a group of citizens led by Christiaan Pieter van Eeghen set up an association to build a park for riding and walking, and in 1865 the Nieuwe Park, designed by Jan David Zocher, opened. A statue of the poet Joost van den Vondel was placed in 1867 and people began to call it Vondel's park, the name became official in 1880, and in 1953 the association gave the park to the city of Amsterdam (Wikipedia, Vondelpark).

What to look for

• An English landscape park - Zocher's curving design of 1865, privately funded.
• Ten million visits a year - the busiest park in the country, and it shows.
• Ground sinking a centimetre a year - peat compressing under the whole park.
• A free open-air theatre - summer performances in the middle of the park.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

What to expect

It is very crowded on any warm day and the lawns fill completely. Subsidence works close sections. Barbecuing is banned. It is a city park rather than nature.

Nearby

The Rijksmuseum and Museumplein are at the eastern end.

Key facts