The Kalverstraat is the busiest shopping street of Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, the capital of the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. It is named after the kalvermarkt (" market") that was held here until the 17th Century.

The Kalverstraat is the most expensive shopping street in the Netherlands, with rents of 2200 euros per square meter (2007). In 2006 it was the 21st most expensive street in the world measured by rent prices. The Kalverstraat is also the most expensive street in the Dutch version of Monopoly

Monopoly (game)

Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...

.

The street begins at Dam Square

Dam Square

Dam Square, or simply the Dam is a town square in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Its notable buildings and frequent events make it one of the most well-known and important locations in the city.- Location and description :...

 and ends roughly 750 meters down near the Munttoren

Munttoren

The Munttoren or Munt is a tower in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It stands on the busy Muntplein square, where the Amstel river and the Singel canal meet, near the flower market and the eastern end of the Kalverstraat shopping street....

 tower at Muntplein

Muntplein, Amsterdam

The Muntplein is a square in the centre of Amsterdam. The square is in fact a bridge — the widest bridge in Amsterdam — which crosses the Singel canal at the point where it flows into the Amstel river...

 square. This tower was once a gate in the medieval city walls. After the walls were built, the street between the Spui

Spui (Amsterdam)

The Spui is a square in the centre of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Spui was originally a body of water that formed the southern limit of the city until the 1420s, when the Singel canal was dug as an outer moat around the city. In 1882 the Spui was filled in and became the square that we know...

 and Munttoren came to be known as Byndewyck. This part of the neighborhood, from 1486 until 1629, had a veemarkt (cattle market). Later on the street got the name Kalverstraat, after the cattle market.

In 1345 a eucharistic miracle

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

 was said to have taken place in a home between the Kalverstraat in the Rokin

Rokin

Rokin is a major street in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Originally it was part of the river Amstel, and was known then as Rak-in . When the quays along the Rokin were constructed in 1913, they were named after the water which they adjoined.The Rokin begins at Muntplein square and ends at Dam square...

. The event is commemorated by the annual Stille Omgang

Stille Omgang

A stille omgang is an informal ritual that served as substitute for the Roman Catholic processions that were prohibited after the Reformation in the Netherlands in the 16th century...

 procession. A chapel, the Heilige Stede

Heilige Stede

Nieuwezijds Kapel, or Heilige Stede or Chapel of the Heilige Stede refers to a site in Amsterdam that includes shops and a Dutch Reformed church built in 1908 on the site of a church once called the Heilige Stede, originally built in the 15th century to replace a chapel that burned in a city fire...

, was built on the spot where the miracle was said to have occurred. The Heiligeweg

Heiligeweg

The Heiligeweg is the street in Amsterdam that used to lead from the Kapel ter Heilige Stede to the Kalverstraat...

 connects the Kalverstraat with this pilgrim chapel, and with Leidsestraat.

Painter Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian

Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian , was a Dutch painter.He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism...

 lived at Kalverstraat 154 from 1892 to 1895. The first HEMA

Hema (store)

HEMA is a Dutch dimestore chain. It was part of the Maxeda company until June 2007, when it was bought by Lion Capital LLP...

 department store opened on the Kalverstraat in 1926. On May 7, 1945, drunk German soldiers shooting from the windows of a building at the corner of Kalverstraat and Dam square killed 19 civilians celebrating their liberation from the Nazis and the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. A fire in the Kalverstraat on May 9, 1977 claimed 33 deaths.

The Amsterdam Museum is located in a former orphanage between Kalverstraat and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal

Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal

The Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal is a street in the centre of Amsterdam. The street runs more or less north-south, and the Raadhuisstraat runs west....

.

External links

• Kalverstraat.nl, website of the Kalverstraat