Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is the 18th largest city in the European Union.
There are over 8,000 listed buildings in Amsterdam.
Since the canals were one of the main transport routes for goods and people in the history of Amsterdam, it was customary to calculate the taxes for a building based on its width along the canal. As a result, in Amsterdam mainly houses were built that had very narrow fronts along the canals, but were relatively long and high in order to provide enough living space or storage space for goods.
Amsterdam stands on around five million wooden piles, which are necessary because of the damp, sandy subsoil. Today, concrete piles are used because of longer durability, easier construction methods and greater depth. The main train station stands on around 8,600 piles, the Royal Palace on 13,659 piles. A large number of these wooden poles were brought on rafts from the Black Forest and the Franconian Forest. All the piles of the main station come from the Franconian Forest. The timber for houses and ships as well as firewood was also transported from these forests on rafts.