Behind the faðcades : gardens of the canal houses in Amsterdam

A green and silent world lies concealed behind the stately Amsterdam canal facades.

When the central canal belt was planned in the seventeenth century, there were strict regulations, called statutes that prohibited people from building on and dividing the gardens.

Following a period of negligence, there has been a considerable revival of interest in the canal house gardens these past years.

This monument, in the form of a book, is an initiative of Stichting de Amsterdamse Grachtentuin [Amsterdam Canal House Gardens Foundation].

Photographer Harold Strak captured the canal house gardens in photographs for an entire year, during all seasons.

The essay written by art historian Koen Kleijn and author Renate Dorrestein is a pointed and entertaining capriccio.