Pinto House, Amsterdam

Huis De Pinto, also known as Pintohuis, is a former private home of De Pinto family, a wealthy Portuguese-Jewish dynasty of merchants and bankers who had lived here since the mid-17th century. Quite unusually for Amsterdam, an imposing house like this was built on a street rather than a canal, which makes it a patrician seat.

The building was constructed around 1606-07 for Jan Jansz. Carel, one of the first directors of the Dutch East India Company. Isaack de Pinto, a Sephardic Jew banker/merchant from Rotterdam and investor in the Dutch East India Company, bought the property in 1651. He promptly remodeled it in grand style, adding six lofty pilasters to the façade, leading the eye up to the blind balustrade.

In 1686, a neighboring building was purchased by his son David, with further renovation completed shortly afterwards. The architect, probably Elias Bouman, also responsible for the design of the Portuguese-Israeli Synagogue, had the exterior embellished with a sandstone façade in the style of Dutch classicism.

By the end of the 19th century, the distinguished building was empty, and after the Second World War was turned into a hovel, as most residents of the former Jewish quarter never returned. In 1975, the then dilapidated building was purchased by the Amsterdam Monuments Fund, which had it restored and, in 1976, placed it on the National Monuments List.

From the mid 1970s until November 14, 2012, a branch of the Public Library of Amsterdam had quartered here. A reference to that period is the little cherub reading a book, seen at the entrance.

Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri: 10:30am-5:30pm; Sat: 1-5pm
Free admission