Historical landmark
Montelbaanstoren
Oudeschans 2, 1011 KX Amsterdam
Sixteenth-century defensive watchtower with a tilted past, Rembrandt sketches, and a canal-side clock that famously kept its own hours.
This guide to Montelbaanstoren in Amsterdam follows a sixteenth-century watchtower that gained an elegant octagonal spire in 1606, designed by city architect Hendrick de Keyser, and began leaning within four years of its completion. You'll hear how engineers hauled the sinking foundations back upright, and why the tower's bells started keeping such unpredictable hours that Amsterdammers gave the tower a mocking nickname. Listen beside the Oudeschans canal, where the tower has stood for four centuries.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.