You are now standing at the back entrance to the Amsterdam Branch of the Russian State Hermitage. The branch was opened in 2009 in a building which was a home for the elderly for 324 years until the late 1990s. Before the Hermitage opened, the building was completely revamped by three major architectural bureaus: Hans van Heeswijk (the outside of the building), Merkx Girod (the interior) and Michael van Gessel (gardens and property).
To prevent the land on this side of the River Amstel from becoming wasteland, the city designated it for building charitable institutions. One such institution was the Old Women’s Home, built in 1681, at the back of which you are now standing.
In 1585, Amsterdam's population was 30,000. Fifteen years later it rose to 50,000 people. This was at the pinnacle of the Eighty Years’ War, when the Spanish had blockaded the Antwerp harbor and the city on the Amstel and the IJ grew rapidly and flourished. Many of the new immigrants lived just outside the overcrowded city and plans for expansion were underway. Many – including burgomasters – seized the chance to buy up and speculate land, arousing popular indignation and causing delays. Works on the expansion finally began in 1613, during the Twelve Years’ Truce. There were two major phases. The first phase extended up to Leidsegracht. Fifty years later, when the city’s population rose to 200,000, the canal ring was expanded as far as the River Amstel. The city palaces became grander than ever, the high point being the ‘Golden Bend’ in the Herengracht. Building went on at a furious pace until 1672, the Dutch Republic’s Year of Disaster, when ‘people lacked reason, the government lacked counsel, and the country lacked salvation.’ The land market collapsed.
In 1680, a wealthy merchant named Barent Helleman, left his entire fortune to the Deanery. The Deanery decided to donate the hefty sum of 90,000 guilders to build a home for old women. Hitherto elderly women generally had to rely on private institutions, which had proved to be expensive and inefficient. The city donated a plot of land and construction started. Hans Jansz van Petersom was probably the architect that drafted the building's plans. Sixteen months later, Amstelhof was completed. The home provided shelter for 400 women. To be eligible to enter the home, the person had to be at least 50, a member of a parish, and had been an Amsterdam resident for no less than ten years.
The building’s characteristically classical facade faces the Amstel and extends along its bank for 102 meters. This was the city’s longest facade at the time. Its proportions are exquisite and the design simple and symmetrical. The grand entrance to the building is blind. A door with stairs leading up to it was considered essential for a building, however behind the door is the church hall, which would have hardly been an appropriate place for an entrance. Above the door is the original inscription:"Deanery Home for Elderly Women 1681 AD".
At the centre of the home’s symmetrical layout lies a sumptuous courtyard. Each of the two wings contains its own courtyard onto which the rooms' or the chamberettes', as they are known, windows opened. At the front was the church hall, which doubled as a refectory. In the corners on the Amstel side were the boardrooms where the governors and governesses met.
Beneath the huge faux door on the Amstel side lies Ossenpoort, the Ox Gate. This was the tradesmen entrance. Through this door food used to be delivered in pots and barrels. Livestock was also brought in and animals - including oxen - would be goaded into the courtyard and slaughtered. Today this is the main visitors entrance to the Amsterdam Hermitage.
The church hall was the main room of the complex. This is where religious services were held and also where residents had their meals. The women sat down at designated seats around long tables to eat three times a day. Until the twentieth century, this room was one of most spacious interiors in the city, second only to the Burgher Hall at the Town Hall on the Dam Square. Many civic functions were therefore held here, including receptions for dignitaries and plenipotentiaries. Members of the Dutch royal family were received at the Amstelhof and Sir Winston Churchill lunched here in 1946.
Originally intended only for women, eventually the Amstelhof began to admit men. New accommodation was required. Later accommodation was also provided for old couples, while the sick and the ailing were given their own wards. Technical advances such as central heating were introduced in 1860. Between 1970 and 1979, the Amstelhof was renovated and turned into a modern nursing home, however a continuously growing number of residents rendered the ongoing reconstruction futile and impractical. So eventually the staff and the patients were relocated to new facilities elsewhere.
Neerlandia was the home for married couples that the Deanery added to the Amstelhof in the end of 19th century. This is where the Hermitage Amsterdam adventure started in 2004. Following a brief yet thorough renovation, the building was transformed into a museum where visitors were introduced to selected art from the Hermitage collection in St. Petersburg. Between 2007 and 2009, a major renovation and refurbishment of the Amstelhof ensued. The exterior of the historic building was cleaned, painted and tidied up. Today the building's exterior looks the way it did in 17th century: elegant and sober. Inside, however, everything has undergone a radical change. The walls and the ceilings were removed to create two large exhibition wings. The interior of the Amsterdam Hermitage is contemporary, almost clinical.
The Amstel Wing of the museum still reminds us of the building’s original function. In the centre stands the church hall, now restored to its former glory. This room is used for receptions, as it used to be in the past. The governesses’ room has also been restored to its state around 1930. Two permanent exhibition rooms are situated in the Amstel Wing. One focuses on the connection between the Netherlands and Russia. The other on the history of the care for the elderly in Amsterdam, particularly at the Amstelhof.