Munttoren
The Munttoren is a tower on the Muntplein that began as part of the Regulierspoort, a medieval gate in Amsterdam’s city wall. After a fire in 1618, Hendrick de Keyser rebuilt its upper half with a clock and spire.
It is called the Mint Tower because of one bad year. For a few months in 1672, with enemy armies across the country, Amsterdam struck its own coins here.
Like the Waag on the Nieuwmarkt, this started as a city gate. The Regulierspoort stood here in the wall of the 1480s, with two towers and a guardhouse between them, and the road south left the city through it.
In 1618 the gate burned. One tower and the guardhouse were all that survived. The city no longer needed a gate here, because it had already grown past this point, so instead of rebuilding it Amsterdam asked Hendrick de Keyser to turn the surviving stump into an ornament. He gave it an eight-sided top, a clock on four sides and an open spire, much as he had done for the Montelbaanstoren thirteen years before.
The name came half a century later. In 1672, which the Dutch still call the Disaster Year, France and England attacked together and French troops occupied much of the country. Silver and gold could not be sent safely to the mints in other towns, so for a short while coins were struck in the guardhouse here. The mint left. The name stayed.
The building attached to the tower looks old and is not. It was rebuilt in the 1880s in a style meant to match.
What to look for
Old and new
Compare the brick of the tower’s base with the building joined to it. The tower is medieval; the house beside it is a 19th-century imitation.
The bells
The carillon in the spire plays every quarter of an hour. It was made in 1668 by Pieter Hemony, the best bell-founder of his day.
Where the wall ran
The Singel, the canal that ends here, was the moat outside the medieval wall. You are standing at the old edge of the city.
Key facts
- Base
- Part of the Regulierspoort, a city gate of the 1480s
- Upper part
- 1619–1620, by Hendrick de Keyser
- Name
- From the mint housed here in 1672
- Attached building
- Rebuilt in the 1880s
- Address
- Muntplein, Amsterdam Directions
Close by
The bigger picture
In Amsterdam? Lookstory tells you the story of whatever you’re standing in front of. Point your phone at it.
Open LookstorySources
The dates, names and figures on this page were checked against published references. These are the records for this place. The story is Lookstory’s own telling of them. Last updated October 2026.