For ages, the house hailed as the oldest in Amsterdam was the unique wooden house (‘Houten Huys’) from 1530 at No. 34 of the Begijnhof (map), one of the oldest inner courts in the city of Amsterdam, inhabited solely by unmarried women.

And now Amsterdam has a new oldest house, located at No. 90 of the Warmoesstraat, near the Red Light district and Central Station. Experts have dated the house back to 1485 by having its wooden structure analysed in a special lab in Berlin. The rich discovery also makes it the very first 15th century house to be discovered in the city.

A fire broke out in No. 90 back in 2010, and during the repairs, a building inspector noticed some very old details in the wood of this old house, also confirmed by the experts that tend to historical monuments and architecture. The façade of the building is from 1800, which is why no one bothered or noticed before.

(Link: www.rtvnh.nl, Photo of Warmoesstraat by Olivier Bruchez, some rights reserved)