The Munttoren (Mint Tower) is a tower in Amsterdam, located on the busy Muntplein (Mint Square) where the Amstel River and Singel canal meet, near the flower market and the eastern end of the Kalverstraat shopping street. Originally part of the Regulierspoort (Reguliers Gate), one of the main gates in Amsterdam's medieval city wall, the tower was built between 1480 and 1487. After a fire in 1618, only part of the western tower and the gatehouse survived. The tower was rebuilt in the Renaissan.. Read more »ce style in 1619-1620. Hendrik de Keyser designed the octagonal top section, featuring an elegant spire, clock with four faces, and a carillon. A golden bull weather vane, a reminder of the 15th-century cattle market once held near the Regulierspoort, sits atop the tower. The tower's current name comes from its temporary 17th-century use as a mint. The original gatehouse, largely undamaged by the 1618 fire, was replaced by a neo-Renaissance structure in 1885-1887. Pieter Hemony created the carillon in 1668, adding new bells to a mechanism he and his brother, François, had built in 1651 for the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Some of the original smaller bells, damaged over time, were replaced in 1959 and 1993. The carillon now has 38 bells, two more than originally. The bells chime every quarter hour, and the Amsterdam carillonneur gives a concert every Saturday between 2 pm and 3 pm.
Netherlands
