Vondelpark

We are lucky enough to live very close to Vondelpark, the biggest park in Amsterdam city. As part of capturing some photos of Amsterdam in autumn on the weekend, I took this one in the park.

And to flesh out the story, I thought I would include some history of the park…

In 1864 a group of prominent Amsterdammers formed a committee to found a public park. They raised money to buy 8 hectares of land and the architect L.D. Zocher was commissioned to design the park as an English landscape. They used vistas, ponds and pathways to create an illusion of a natural area. The park was open to public in 1865 as a horseback riding and strolling park named Nieuwe Park. The name Vondelpark was adopted in 1867 when a statue of Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel was situated into the park. The committee soon raised money to enlarge the park and by 1877 it reached its current space of 45 hectares. At that time its location was on the edge of Amsterdam, since then it has become central in the city.