Amsterdam Central Train Station

by Norma Brandsberg

Title

Amsterdam Central Train Station

Artist

Norma Brandsberg

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Of all the buildings we saw in Amsterdam, one of my favorites has to have been the Amsterdam Central (Centraal)Train Station where all modes of traffic options in Amsterdam come together in this wonderful building. It is glorious lit at night as you can see here.

Amsterdam Centraal (Central) Station is the largest railway station in Amsterdam in North Holland, Netherlands. A major international railway hub, it is used by 192,000 passengers a day, making it the second busiest railway station in the country after Utrecht Central and the most visited Rijksmonument of the Netherlands.

Amsterdam Central was designed by Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers and opened in 1889. It features a Gothic, Renaissance Revival station building[3] and a cast iron platform roof spanning approximately 40 meters.

Amsterdam Centraal was designed by Pierre Cuypers, who is also known for his design of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. While Cuypers was the principal architect, it is believed that he focused mostly on the decoration of the station building and left the structural design to railway engineers. The station was built by contractor Philipp Holzmann. The new central station replaced Amsterdam Willemspoort Station, which had closed in 1878, as well as the temporary Westerdok Station used from 1878 to 1889.

Cuypers' design of the station building in many ways strongly resembled his other architectural masterpiece, the Rijksmuseum, of which the construction had begun in 1876. It features a palace-like, Gothic/Renaissance Revival facade, with two turrets and many ornamental details and stone reliefs referring to the capital city's industrial and commercial importance. Cuyper's station reflects the romantic nationalistic mood in the late nineteenth-century Netherlands, with its many decorative elements glorifying the nation's economic and colonial power at the time.

Construction works started in 1882. The station is built on three interconnected artificial islands in the IJ lake. These islands were created with sand taken from the dunes near Velsen, which had become available as a result of the excavation of the North Sea Canal. The islands together are known as Stationseiland (Station Island). Like many other structures in Amsterdam, the station was built on wooden piles (8,687 pieces). The construction of the station was delayed because of the instability of the soil, which set back the completion of the work by several years. The station building was completed in 1884, but the commission to Cuypers did not include the roof work of the platforms. Therefore, the station did not yet feature its distinctive station roof. This roof, consisting of 50 curved trusses and a span of almost 45 meters, was designed by L.J. Eijmer, a civil engineer with the private railroad company Staatsspoorwegen.

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October 1st, 2020

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