[mks_dropcap style=”letter” size=”48″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]Y[/mks_dropcap]ou may not notice them at first glance, but a lot of houses in Amsterdam have a facing brick stone above their doors or windows. Before the year 1800, house numbers or street names did not exist and only a few people ataköy escort bayan could read. Thus the brick stones were the clues, and the only means of communication, to give direction throughout the city.

These little artworks were not only useful to find your way to a house or a place beylikdüzü escort in the city, but they were also used as a sort of advertisement. For example a fish shop would have a little painting on the house with a fish or a ship to make it clear where his shop was and what it sold. Otherwise, the painting could be referred to the owner of the house or the person who built the house. halkalı escort Nowadays there are still 1100 of these little paintings in Amsterdam and on the internet you can find walk routes to find them all. These brick stones are not used as house numbers anymore but are remains of the old Dutch culture.

Photo’s: Nicky van der Eem / Final editing: Leonie Ruizendaal