Amsterdam - Dam with National Monument

The Dam, with the Royal Palace and the national monument, is no longer either geographically or administratively the center of Amsterdam, but has remained the heart of the city. It was the Dam which gave the city its name: built about 1270, it separated the Amstel from the IJ (an arm of the Zuiderzee. Amsterdam's history began here with the founding of the original settlement trading in fish and cattle. As in the past, the people of Amsterdam still assemble on the Dam for official events. In its early days a small market grew up on the square known, in accordance with medieval custom, as the "Plaetse", and today the square still retains its market character.