Amsterdam - Trip House

(Local Name: Trippenhuis) The elegant mansion, on the corner of the Amstel and the Nieuwmarkt, was built by the Trip brothers (immensely rich cannon manufacturers) and today houses the Dutch Academy of Sciences. When the two "cannon kings" moved to Amsterdam they wanted an imposing house to live in. In 1662 they were able to move into the "Trip house" and the chimneys are shaped like the mortars to which the brothers owed their wealth. Tradition has it that one of the family's servants was heard to say, "Oh, if only I had a house as wide as your front door I should be happy!" One of the Trip brothers overheard this and had a little house built of the same materials and in the same style opposite the Trip house. This little Trip house is still there today at No. 26. The Royal Institute for Science, Literature and Fine Arts, today the Dutch Academy of Sciences, moved into the Trip house in 1808.