Cool

Artists and students serve up a hefty slice of urban life in the Jordaan area of Amsterdam

Author: By Judith Bell, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, September 21, 1997

Page: M1

Section: Travel

Developed in the beginning of the 17th century as a humble industrial quarter to house the waves of immigrants crowding into prosperous Amsterdam, the Jordaan today is home to some thousand small businesses. The 2-square-mile area bound by Prinsengracht, Marnixstraat, and Brouwersgracht is also one of the city's most desirable residential areas.

After several visits to Amsterdam during which we felt obliged to explore the city's more well-known sites, last summer we decided to narrow our focus and indulge in a concentrated dose of the Jordaan's charms.

This jumble of tightly packed houses and network of narrow streets and alleys had its origins in a zigzag series of polders and ditches dug in the mid 1600s. When the city's three main canals -- Heren, Keizers, and Prinsengracht -- became the city's stylish area, noisy and sometimes smelly workshops were no longer tolerated. Along with the poor, industry was relegated to the marshy area beyond the central ring of canals. Famous ``Jordaanees,'' as residents are known, have included Rembrandt, who moved here in 1660 with his mistress when bankruptcy forced him to give up his fashionable residence in the city's center (now the Rembrandt Museum), and the French philosopher Rene Descartes, who moved to the Netherlands in 1628.

The origin of the district's name remains unclear.

Popular theory holds that it is a corruption of the French word ``jardin'' (garden). After the abolition of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Amsterdam became a refuge for Protestant French Huguenots fleeing persecution in their Catholic homeland. Many of these immigrants found shelter in the area that became known as the Jordaan. Most of the canals bear the names of flowers Laurierrgracht (Laurel Canal) and Rozengracht (Roses Canal), for example.

By 1890, some 85,000 people inhabited this area, four times the present population. Then as now, more than 90 percent of the 11,000 apartments had no more than three rooms. By the beginning of the century, the Jordaan had become a slum.

Refurbishment began after World War II when more than 800 buildings were first listed as being of architectural interest. Seven of the original canals were filled in.

Rebirth began in earnest in the 1960s, when artists and young people began to flock to this picturesque quarter. In the 1970s, private developers acted faster than the city, buying up many of the area's historic and industrial buildings, converting them into high-end apartments and studios. The restored housing led to rising real estate prices and the exodus of original inhabitants to the suburbs. Subsidized housing designed to blend in with the old environment allowed many residents to remain.

Before renovation, the neighborhood had many narrow alleys named for the occupations of their original inhabitants. While many of the alleys have disappeared, some of the streets retain names reflecting professions: for example, Tichelstraat (Brick Street). Walking through the twisting streets of the Jordaan is still a confusing business. It's best to toss aside maps, which can only lead to frustration when streets change names almost every block, and simply give yourself over to exploration and discovery.

Parking has been banned on many of the streets, making strolling through the Jordaan more comfortable than it is in other parts of the city.

Shops in Holland, and in particular in Amsterdam, take seriously the question of ambience, making this one of the most enjoyable European cities in which to shop. Goods are beautifully and imaginatively displayed. The care lavished on window dressing borders on high art. We found the boutiques in the Jordaan to be no exception. Shopkeepers' hours however, were somewhat capricious. We returned in vain to Antiek Brocante Curiosa Art Deco on Elandsgracht to marvel at the columned black marble mantle clock with its nude statuette displayed in the window, and to Knopenwinkel (Wolvenstraat 14), where wooden cabinets with glass doors revealed buttons of every imaginable shape and color.

Thony Monpellier, proprietor of Exel Bijoux (Hazenstraat 6), a costume jewelry boutique, boasted his was the newest business and the oldest building in the Jordaan. Inside the shop painted in delicate shades of yellow and blue, clever displays for an impressive collection of necklaces, bracelets, and rings included a blue velvet trapeze suspended from the ceiling by yellow ribbons, mannequins, and classical pedestals.

Just down the street is Creme de la Creme, an antiques store specializing in English and Dutch pine and Oriental porcelain. The shop also carries a collection of lamps. Lit and displayed throughout the store, they create an aura of cozy insularity.

A pervasive fascination with rustic Italy has apparently hit Holland. In addition to a number of new restaurants offering stylish northern Italian cuisine, there are several shops in the Jordaan that specialize in the Italian furnishings. Umbria (Kerkstraat 121) features reproductions crafted in this region of north-central Italy.

Stuccoed walls, a rough-hewn wood floor, and primitive pottery set off the well-made and well-priced pieces that would be at home in the most aged country villa. At La Boum (Van Baerlestraat 122), we found similar contemporary reproductions as well as a number of Italian antiques.

Bed en Bad (Woinen 2000) carries a wide collection of handsome linens and whimsical bed-and-bath accessories. The back of the store offers a rare view into a private side of Dutch life seldom seen from the street. A wall of glass doors opens onto a small enclosed garden. The ivy-covered brick walls and maximized use of limited space is typical of home gardens found throughout Amsterdam.

House numbers were first instituted during the Napoleonic era. Before this, gable stones, with their pictorial description of the inhabitants' trade or occupation, was the only way to distinguish residences. We noted gable stones indicating the residences of millers, brewers, clothiers.

Bloemgracht, one of the most popular streets in the Jordaan, became known as the gentleman's canal of the Jordaan. Nasturtiums and begonias cascade from window boxes down the facades of gabled houses; sunflowers twist up lampposts. Architectural standouts on this street are numbers 87-91, where elaborate stepped gables define the facades. The houses now belong to a foundation that preserves the work of the buildings' architect, Hendrick de Keyser.

On Westermarkt, the 280-foot tower of Westerkerk (West Church) looms above the city. Built in 1630 in the new Dutch classical style, Westerkerk was Rembrandt's parish church, as well as his burial place and that of his son Titus and his wife. The tower is open to visitors in summer, and offers a spectacular view of Amsterdam.

Visitors will invariably discover their favorite street. Ours was Elandsgracht, with its mix of auction houses, junk stores, antiques shops, and ethnic restaurants.

Elandsgracht 109 and Looiersgracht are two indoor antiques markets (open daily except Sunday) that draw regulars and tourists alike. In the dealers' stalls were antique porcelain bath fixtures, tin toys from the turn of the century, Delft tiles, as well as an assortment of sturdy Dutch furniture crafted from mahogany and oak.

The Thai restaurant Rakang (Elandsgracht 31) serves dinner daily, while its tiny ``take away'' storefront next door offers many of the same delicacies found on the restaurant menu throughout the day. We discovered the carry-out counter our first night in Amsterdam when, jet-lagged, we opted to eat early. The portions were generous and the yellow curry and pad Thai noodles were seasoned with care in light-textured sauces with plenty of fragrance and flavor.

Across the street at the bustling Palladia, a young urban crowd packed the narrow restaurant where columns and stucco walls evoke Tuscany. Tables spilled onto the sidewalk through the open front of the restaurant. Bottles of virgin olive oil, a terra-cotta saucer, and a full loaf of black olive bread awaited us at our table near the antipasto case.

We chose grilled eggplant, salmon ravioli in hazelnut sauce, and spaghetti with mussels from the handwritten menu.

Our last night in Amsterdam, we returned to Rakang for dinner, this time electing to eat in the jewel-like dining room where lavender walls and sorbet-colored silk fabrics offered a visually cooling counterpart to the menu's pleasing palette of incendiary tastes. We dined on crispy fish with chili sauce, rice noodles with spicy chicken, and complemented our meal with a delicate sampling of coconut, mango, and kiwi sorbets.

We strolled down Elandsgracht, visiting our favorite store windows one last time. The auction house was open, the bidding on a sale we had previewed earlier in the week was in full swing. I recognized in the crowd that jammed the doorway a few faces from our repeated ramblings through the neighborhood. We paused for a moment, observing, listening to the now familiar cadence of Dutch that surrounded us, before wandering off to enjoy our last cup of coffee in the Jordaan. I thought of the words Descartes, who lived in the Jordaan on Westermarkt, wrote to a friend soon after his arrival in Amsterdam: ``What other place in the world could you choose where all of life's comforts, and all the novelties that a man could want are so easy to obtain as here and where you can enjoy such a feeling of freedom.''