The Paleis voor Volksvlijt (Dutch, meaning Palace of Popular Diligence) was a large exhibition hall in Amsterdam, located on the Frederiksplein, near the current location of De Nederlandsche Bank. The building was constructed between 1859 and 1864. It was designed by architect Cornelis Outshoorn, inspired by the Crystal Palace in London. In 1929, it was destroyed by fire.
After Samuel Sarphati had visited The Great Exhibition, he decided to found the Vereeniging voor Volksvlijt (Association for Popular Diligence) with the goal of erecting a building similar to the Crystal Palace in London. In 1853, he petitioned the municipality. His new Palace was to be part of an extensive plan of expansion of the city, which also included construction on the banks of the Amstel and in what is now De Pijp. In 1855, municipal authorities agreed to Sarphati's plan.
A prize was offered for building designs in 1856, but not awarded to any contestant. The Association then contacted Outshoorn. On September 7, 1859, construction was officially started in the presence of king William III. The building was opened on August 16, 1864. Starting 1865, it hosted weekly concerts by its own Palace Orchestra, directed by Johannes Meinardus Coenen until 1891, then by Richard Hol. The famous French constructor of organs, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, put in place a large concert organ in 1875. This organ was first played by Alexandre Guilmant on October 26, 1875. It was later played by Charles-Marie Widor (1886), Louis Vierne (1895) and Camille Saint-Saëns (1897). The Palace's regular organist, from 1879, was the Belgian Jean-Baptiste de Pauw.
It soon turned out that exploitation of the building as an exhibition hall was infeasible. The Palace, instead, turned into an entertainment center, and part of its garden was sold off. The ground was to house a luxury shopping gallery designed by Adolf Leonard van Gendt in 1881-1883.
Under the directorate of Johannes George de Groot, his operatic troupe performed in the Palace, until it went bankrupt in 1895. The Palace orchestra and organ player were laid off in the same year and the Palace gradually lost its position as a cultural center. The placing of an organ in the Concertgebouw drew the crowd away from the Cavaillé-Coll organ, which was sold to the Haarlem municipality (sponsored by the business men Adriaan Stoop and Julius Carl Bunge). In 1922 it was moved to the Philharmonie Haarlem, where it still resides.
A fire destroyed the Palace on the night of 17 April 1929. The gallery or arcade, housing shops and apartments, was spared, but the main building was lost and never reconstructed. Writer Gerard Reve lived in one of the apartments in the gallery in the 1950s. The gallery was finally torn down in 1960 to make way for the new Nederlandsche Bank building.
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Haarlem is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the more populated metropolitan areas in Europe; it is also part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Haarlem had a population of 162,543 in 2021.
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll was a French organ builder. He has the reputation of being the most distinguished organ builder of the 19th century. He pioneered innovations in the art and science of organ building that permeated the profession and influenced the course of organ building, composing and improvising through the early 20th century. As the author of scientific journal articles about the organ construction details, he published the results of his research and experiments. He was the inventor of the symphonic organ being able to follow smooth and immediate dynamic changes like a symphonic orchestra. This goal was reached by: a) invention of harmonic flue and reed stops, such as the ''flûte harmonique'', ''trompette harmonique'', ''clairon harmonique'', b) invention of divided windchest with 2-3 different wind pressure sections, c) creation of groups of stops allowing for fast dynamics changes without taking hands out of the keyboards by the organist, d) organ specification planning on the base of ''orchestral quartet". His most famous organs were built in Paris in Saint-Denis Basilica (1841), Église de la Madeleine, Sainte-Clotilde Basilica (1859), Saint-Sulpice church, Notre-Dame Cathedral, baron Albert de L'Espée's residence in Biarritz, and many others. After Cavaillé-Coll's death, Charles Mutin maintained the business into the beginning of the 20th century. The organ reform movement in the 20th century sought to return organ building to a more Baroque style; but since then, Cavaillé-Coll's designs have come back into fashion.
Jacob van Campen was a Dutch artist and architect of the Golden Age.
Franciscus Johannes Gijsbertus van den Berg or just Johfra Bosschart was a Dutch modern artist. Johfra and his wife, Ellen Lórien, established in Fleurac in 1962. They lived in the Netherlands before that. Johfra described his works as "Surrealism based on studies of psychology, religion, the Bible, astrology, antiquity, magic, witchcraft, mythology and occultism."
Villa Welgelegen is a historical building in Haarlem, the Netherlands, which currently houses the offices of the provincial executives of North Holland. Located at the north end of a public park in the city, it is an example of neoclassical architecture, designed by Abraham van der Hart and unusual for its style in the Netherlands.
Samuel Sarphati was a Dutch physician and Amsterdam city planner.
The Dutch city of Amsterdam has had many planned expansions over the past two centuries.
RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre, formerly Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre or simply RAI Amsterdam, is a complex of conference and exhibition halls in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The Tweede Schilderijenzaal, or Painting Gallery II, is one of two art gallery rooms in Teylers Museum. The Tweede Schilderijenzaal was built in 1893 as an extension of the first gallery.
The following is a timeline of the history of the municipality of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Richard Constant Boer was a Dutch linguist who specialized in Old Norse.
Johannes Frederik Hulk Sr. was a Dutch painter, draftsman, photographer, and owner of a paint supplies store.
Johannes Cornelis Hendrik de Meijere was a Dutch zoologist and entomologist who specialised in Diptera and Coleoptera.
Emile [Emmanuel Gerhardus Johannes] Wennekes born July 19, 1963, Doetinchem, is a Dutch musicologist, Full Professor at Utrecht University for the Chair: Music and Media.
The Sarphatistraat is a street in the center of Amsterdam between Frederiksplein and Oostenburgergracht at the Cruquiuskade. The street crosses the Amstel and forms an almost 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long connection between the southern part of the Grachtengordel and the Oostelijke Eilanden.
The pee curl is a public urinal, many of which are found in centre of Amsterdam. They originated at the end of the 19th century, and were first installed by the Publieke Werken, or Public Works Department of Amsterdam.
Antonius Johannes (Antoon) Derkinderen was a Dutch painter, Glass artist, Draftsman and designer of book covers.
Maurits Cornelis van Hall was a Dutch lawyer, banker and politician. He was involved in founding many companies.
