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Amsterdam Centraal station

central railway station of Amsterdam

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ50719 ↗
Source-derived summary

Amsterdam Centraal station (Dutch: Station Amsterdam Centraal, lit. 'Amsterdam Central Station', Dutch pronunciation: [staːˈɕɔn ˌɑmstərˈdɑm sɛnˈtraːl], abbreviation: Asd) is the largest railway station in Amsterdam, North Holland, the Netherlands. A major international railway hub, it is used by 192,000 passengers a day, making it the second busiest railway station in the country after Utrecht Centraal and the most visited Rijksmonument of the Netherlands.

National and international railway services at Amsterdam Centraal are provided by NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen), the principal rail operator in the Netherlands. Amsterdam Centraal is the northern terminus of Amsterdam Metro lines 51, 53, 54, and is a stop on Line 52 operated by municipal public transport operator GVB. It is also served by a number of GVB tram and ferry routes as well as local and regional bus routes operated by GVB, Connexxion and EBS.

Amsterdam Centraal was designed by Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers and opened in 1889. It features a Gothic, Renaissance Revival station building and a cast iron platform roof spanning approximately 40 metres (130 ft).

Since 1997, the station building, underground passages, metro station, and the surrounding area have been undergoing major reconstruction and renovation works to accommodate the North-South Line metro route, which was opened on 22 July 2018. Amsterdam Centraal has the second longest railway platform in the Netherlands with a length of 695 metres (2,280 ft). Due to the length, each platform may serve two trains, while one embarks from side "a" of a platform and the other, from side "b".

History

Construction

Amsterdam Centraal was designed by Pierre Cuypers, who is also known for his design of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. While Cuypers was the principal architect, it is believed that he focused mostly on the decoration of the station building and left the structural design to railway engineers.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Amsterdam Centraal station” is central railway station of Amsterdam. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Amsterdam, Centraal and station, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1889, 1997, 2018—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1889. For this dossier, Amsterdam, Centraal and station is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “central railway station of Amsterdam” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q50719. VIAF identifies the subject as 248791324. Authority coordinates are 52.379, 4.900. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1889, 1997 and 2018.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Amsterdam Centraal station”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Amsterdam Centraal station primary sources, Amsterdam Centraal station archive and Amsterdam research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Amsterdam Centraal station”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Amsterdam Centraal station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.