A series of fortunate coincidences led to the creation of this museum dedicated to the evolution of Amsterdam’s famous canal belt and the houses that sprung up along them. Although the city offers other Golden Age museums that display renovated or reconstructed 17th-century interiors, Het Grachtenhuis focuses on the development of the city during its most prosperous era with a variety of modern multimedia experiences and films on the top floors of the building, while still showing off its antique grandeur of marble foyers, period furniture and paintings by illustrious Dutch artists. Watch the Beatles taking a tour of the city on a canal boat, peer into a dollhouse and watch a hologram of typical city life or just admire the décor of a protected monument designed by one of the Netherlands’ best ever architects.