Het Trippenhuis

This guide to the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam follows arms dealers Louys and Hendrick Trip, who completed the widest canal house in the city in 1662, funded by decades of selling cannon and gunpowder across a Europe that was rarely at peace. It traces the contradiction carved into the facade itself: olive branches beside cannon barrels, and chimneys shaped like mortars. Look up as you pass by: the chimneys are mirrored exactly, one set for each brother's household behind the single grand front.