ABSTRACT
The Vondelpark is the de facto Central Park of Amsterdam, the capital and most populous city in The Netherlands. It too is a long, skinny, inwardly focused nineteenth-century pleasure ground providing a romantic contrast to its surrounding urban grid. Built in a series of southwesterly extensions, it follows the alignment of the peat polder parcels radiating out from the seventeenth-century city limit described by the semi-circular Singelgracht canal. As the city expanded, the demand for recreational space grew. The Vondelpark was established immediately outside this ring, under the initial name Rij-en Wandelpark – Riding and Walking Park – and then Nieuwe Park – New Park (de Jong et al. 2008: 84; Steenbergen and Reh 2011: 270). It was renamed Vondelpark in 1880 after the statue of poet and playwright Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679) installed there in 1867.
