Things to Do in Amersfoort, Netherlands: Walking Guide

The best things to do in Amersfoort include exploring its medieval gates, historic churches, canals and fortified city walls. The compact centre is particularly rewarding on foot, with landmarks such as Koppelpoort, the Tower of Our Lady and the wall houses of Muurhuizen. Neywo has a free audio guide for Amersfoort with 81 narrated places.

What to see in Amersfoort

Tower of Our Lady

The Tower of Our Lady, known locally as Lange Jan or Long John, dominates Amersfoort’s skyline. Its weather vane reaches 98.33 metres, making it the third-highest church tower in the Netherlands, after the Dom Tower in Utrecht and the New Church in Delft.

The Late Gothic tower was built in brick with stone detailing, an octagonal spire and four corner turrets. A church once stood beside it, but an explosion of gunpowder destroyed the building in the 18th century. The tower survived alone.

It also marks the centre of the Dutch coordinate system, the Rijksdriehoeksmeting. Dutch map coordinates are measured from this point, marked at 155,000 metres east and 463,000 metres north.

Koppelpoort

Koppelpoort is one of Amersfoort’s defining landmarks: a medieval gate where the city wall meets the river Eem. Completed around 1425, it was built to control both land and water traffic. Horses and carts passed through the ground-level arch, while boats used the adjoining water gate.

The gate formed part of Amersfoort’s second defensive ring, constructed between 1380 and 1450. Its name comes from coppel, an old word for common pasture, referring to the shared grazing fields outside the gate. Towers and machicolations still show how the city protected itself on both sides of the water.

Muurhuizen and the Plompetoren

The Muurhuizen follow the line of Amersfoort’s former city defences, creating one of the most distinctive historic streets in the centre. At Muurhuizen 97 stands the Plompetoren, also known as the Dieventoren or Gevangentoren. It is sometimes called Latijntje and is a national monument.

The tower is a reminder that the city’s defensive past is still visible in its residential architecture, not only in its surviving gates.

Mannenzaal

The Mannenzaal, at Westsingel 47, was once part of the Sint Pieters- en Bloklands Gasthuis, a hospital for sick and poor people. It is one of the best-preserved medieval hospitals in the Netherlands.

Its layout and construction offer a rare view of how communities organized social care in the Middle Ages. The building’s late medieval design makes it a particularly valuable stop for visitors interested in the history of healthcare and everyday life.

Het Sprengel

Het Sprengel is a historic water-drawing crane on the bridge over the Singelgracht. The bridge dates from 1616, while the present crane was forged in 1916 at the request of the local historical society.

Its S-shaped iron arches form the crane’s jib, which once supported a chain and bucket lowered into the Westsingel canal. People used it to draw water for daily needs. The ironwork includes a lily motif connected with the brewery De Lelie, which stood nearby at Langegracht 31 from around 1700 onward.

The Synagogue

Amersfoort’s synagogue on Drieringensteeg has been a centre of Jewish life for nearly three centuries. Founded in 1727, it remains standing and in use.

The first community leader was Abraham Italiaander, a tobacco merchant who brought Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews together in one congregation. By 1941, the Jewish community numbered about 700 people. Half were murdered in the Shoah. Today, an active orthodox community worships in the synagogue, with services held at least once a week.

Sint-Joriskerk and the Hof

The Hof is Amersfoort’s largest square, and the Sint-Joriskerk has anchored it for centuries. This three-aisled hall church has national monument status as a Rijksmonument.

The building is not used only for Sunday worship. From mid-May through October, its doors are open to visitors, and throughout the year it hosts events connected with culture, society and questions of meaning.

Other churches and historic buildings

Amersfoort’s centre contains several additional religious landmarks. Sint Joris op ’t Zand is an Old Catholic parish church in the heart of the city. The Evangelisch-Lutherse Kerk on Langestraat, known locally as the Amersfoortse Zwaan or Amersfoort Swan, serves a Lutheran congregation from the Eemland region and the northwestern Veluwe.

The Sint-Rochuskapel is a modest chapel on Coninckstraat, while the Appèlkerk on Appelweg is a former church building. Outside the centre, Huize Randenbroek and Huize Schothorst are historic buildings, and Werk aan de Glashut and Werk bij Krachtwijk reveal another side of the area’s past.

Werk aan de Glashut is an earthwork fortification constructed in 1799 as part of the Grebbe Line, close to the river Eem. Werk bij Krachtwijk was also laid out in 1799, as part of the Grebbelinie, a defensive line intended to protect the heart of the Netherlands from the east. Around twenty casemates can be found along this stretch of the Eem, including three at Krachtwijk.

An Amersfoort self-guided walking tour

An Amersfoort self-guided walking tour is a practical way to connect the city’s landmarks without joining a group. The historic centre brings together gates, churches, wall houses, canals and reminders of the city’s military past in a compact area.

For wider ideas when planning a trip through the Netherlands, Amersfoort also makes a useful contrast with larger and more heavily visited destinations. Nearby Utrecht offers another perspective on Dutch historic urban life, while Giethoorn is known for a very different relationship between settlement and water.

Explore Amersfoort with Neywo

Neywo’s free Amersfoort audio guide includes 81 narrated places. In Amersfoort, the app offers:

• 2 walking tours
• 1 bus route
• 1 bike route
• 2.1 to 2.63 km per route
• 9 to 114 minutes per route
• 5 to 12 narrated stops per route
• Narration in 11 languages

The walks include Long John and the Medieval Ring: Gates, Water and Walls, with 1.82 km, 114 minutes and 12 stops, and Mondriaan’s Town: Art, Faith and the Hof, with 2.63 km, 110 minutes and 12 stops. The bus route covers 2.1 km in 9 minutes with 5 stops, while the bike route covers 2.6 km in 13 minutes with 5 stops.

Download Neywo and explore at your own pace: the app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule.