The Council Chamber where Queen Beatrix held her civil wedding ceremony in 1966 features painted and carved wood panels and a massive table carved with animals representing the four points of a compass. Weddings are still performed in the exquisite marriage chamber, commissioned by city officials in 1925.
Artist Chris Lebeau depicted a couple's courtship and wedding in Jugendstil murals and luminous red-, purple-, and lime stained-glass windows.
At the entrance to the hotel's cafe hangs the postwar mural "Asking Children," by Karel Appel. The 1949 work, depicting children begging for food, caused such a controversy when it was hung in front of the then town hall's canteen that the city hid it for a decade (www.thegrand.nl).
Foam Photography Museum and Huis Marseille
Old and new contrast dramatically at a pair of 17th-century canal houses along Keizersgracht canal. Behind the elegant facades of the Foam Photography Museum and Huis Marseille are the striking contemporary photographs of established artists and emerging talent.
This spring, Foam showcases American photographer Jessica Dimmock. For three years, Dimmock charted the lives of a group of heroin addicts living in a Manhattan apartment (www.foam.nl).
