Want a piece of an old Amsterdam building in your home?

Anyone with a building or housing plans in Amsterdam can now request a remnant of a historic Amsterdam building for reuse. The city of Amsterdam has hundreds of gables and pediment fragments in storage that city dwellers can claim to give the decorative pieces a new life, for example by using them on another building facade, or an art project.

The fragments come from demolished or partly demolished historic buildings. In most cases in involves loose fragments of things like natural stone garlands or parts of facades, the origin of which is often unknown. About 30 percent of the collection are entire gables and clearly recognizable and traceable building fragments.

The relocation of these pieces of historic Amsterdam buildings will be supervised by the municipality's Monument and Archeology department. There are various criteria that must be met for the reuse of these fragments.

More information, as well as an overview of the available fragments, can be found on the city's website. Amsterdammers have until December 31st to apply for such a piece of Amsterdam history.