Magna Plaza, l'antica Posta Centrale
Amsterdam
Magna Plaza is Amsterdam's old main post office, built between 1895 and 1899. Today it is a shopping centre inside a building that looks like a castle.
A fairy-tale post office
From the 1700s, Amsterdam's post office stood on this street, which was then a canal. By the late 1800s the old building had become too small. The government gave the new design to Cornelis Peters, who drew about 120 post offices in his career.
Peters mixed medieval Gothic shapes with later styles, using bricks of many colours and pale stone. The result is so richly decorated that it looks like anything but a post office.
What to look at
Look at the turrets on the corners and the big tower at the back. Along the roof runs a row of little dormer windows, each with a small stepped roof.
Inside is a large central hall, with arched galleries on two floors and a glass roof. The public could once enter only the ground floor: the rest was for post office staff.
From post office to shops
The postal service left the building in the late 1980s. After long works, the Magna Plaza shopping centre opened in 1992. From outside, the building has stayed almost the same: the fronts were only cleaned and restored.
