The Dam in Amsterdam with the Town Hall and the Nieuwe Kerk

When van der Heyden set down this view of the Dam around 1670, the great block on the left was still almost new. Amsterdam's town hall had been consecrated in 1655 after seven years of building, raised on 13,659 wooden piles driven into the soft ground, and contemporaries called it the eighth wonder of the world. The city had chosen a sober classical style on purpose, presenting itself as a new Rome, a proud merchant republic. Beside it stands the Nieuwe Kerk, the church where Dutch monarchs are still sworn in. It was meant to carry an enormous tower, the tallest in the Republic. Thousands of foundation piles were sunk for it in the 1640s, then the plan was dropped, and van der Heyden painted the church exactly as it stayed, squared off at the top without its tower.