de Gouden bocht

This guide to the Golden Bend in Amsterdam centers on Andries de Graeff, a seven-time mayor who built one of the canal ring's widest mansions here in 1672 and commissioned the painter Gerard de Lairesse to fill his ballroom ceiling with an allegory of Unity, Freedom of Trade, and Protection from Danger, declaring the merchant republic Holland's true defender. Months later, French armies crossed the border and Amsterdam turned on its own leaders, and a crowd incited by de Graeff's political rivals confronted him in the street on the first of July. Look up at the wide facades along this stretch of the Herengracht, built deliberately wider than anywhere else on the canal ring.