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The Stock Exchange in Amsterdam (Beurs van Berlage) is a significant monument of modern Dutch architecture. It was built between 1898 and 1903 by Hendrik Petrus Berlage on the newly created piece of land obtained by covering the city's oldest harbour basin located in the very centre of Amsterdam.
The architectural importance of the building lays in its original volume and the new aesthetics it proposed at the time. It is the sober brick building, which does not try to imitate Gothic or Renaissance as many other important city buildings in Amsterdam erected at the end of the 19th century.
The Beurs van Berlage building is simple and sober in its form. Its main decoration is a big clock placed high on the tower. The building has unique and well-preserved interiors. The main hall, originally a trading floor for commodities, strikes with its simplicity but at the same time with the craftsmanship of its decorations. The roof, made of double glass panes, gives a lot of natural light inside the building. Several sorts of profiled and glazed bricks, as well as stone, wood and iron, were used harmoniously.
Beurs van Berlage has been at the time of its construction an innovative building giving international recognition to its creator and influenced other architects.
Beurs van Berlage served for almost a century as an Amsterdam stock and commodities exchange. As the trading activities grew, the building became too small and already in 1912, stock trading had to be moved to a new building at Beursplein 5. Still, some tradings were continued in the Beurs van Berlage until 1998.
Today, the Dutch like to call the Beurs's function with an Italian expression - Palazzo Publico, a public hall. With a surface area of almost 1600 m2, the main hall of the Beurs van Berlage is the largest in the centre of Amsterdam.
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