Amsterdam is known for having a beautiful architectural style, and many of its attractions in the Centrum district include the Dam Square, the Royal Palace, Kalversraat, the Nieuwmarkt and the shops of Haarlemmerdijk. But just along Kloveniersburgwal is a lesser-known building that holds a storied past.
The Oost-Indisch Huis was the site of the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, the world's first-ever formally listed public company and megacorporation, which dealt in trade of both goods and people. Its famous and infamous past began in 1602, while the Oost-Indisch Huis opened as its headquarters in 1606.
The building was used as a meeting place for the regents of the company, known as the Lords Seventeen (Heeren XVII). The company later dissolved, and the building became the Batavian Republic's colonial government seat until 1808. Today, it's the site of the University of Amsterdam's science library and is a National Monument.
The building's interior has been renovated throughout the centuries to keep up with modernization, but the exterior has largely held its Dutch Renaissance architecture, with its red-and-white brick facade and details of carved bay leaves above each window. It remains today as a monument to the city's economic importance and as a paragon of Dutch Renaissance architecture.
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