Marie Heinekenplein
The first Heineken beer was brewed on this ground on 22 January 1868. What replaced the brewery — demolished in 1988 — is a circular plaza about 70 metres across, with a star-shaped fountain at its centre that nods quietly to the logo of the company that once stood here.
Today the square belongs to De Pijp rather than to any corporate legacy. Café terraces ring most of the circumference, catching sun for a good stretch of the day. In summer, children wade in the fountain while their parents occupy every available chair. It is an ordinary neighbourhood square doing exactly what a good one should.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to time it right: mid-morning on a weekday, when the terraces are half-full and the fountain is yours to sit beside. The cafés along the southern edge, where Quellijnstraat meets the square, tend to be quieter than those facing Ferdinand Bolstraat. On event days — a book market, an open-air cinema — the atmosphere shifts entirely.
Deals in Marie Heinekenplein
Book directly at the providerHow Marie Heinekenplein came to be
The Heineken brewery operated on this site from 1868 until most of it was demolished in 1988. Construction of the square began in 1993, and the naming process turned out to be more complicated than anyone anticipated. The original plan was to honour Nelson Mandela, but Amsterdam's street-naming rules prohibit naming public spaces after living people. The proposal was further shelved following Winnie Mandela's 1991 conviction for kidnapping and being an accessory to assault.
A compromise landed on Marie Heineken (1844–1930), a Dutch painter known for flower still lifes and a relative of brewery founder Gerard Adriaan Heineken. The square was formally named after her in 1994. In 2015, the central fountain was added, its star shape drawn from the Heineken logo — a small, deliberate reminder of what once stood here.
Who and what shaped it
People who shaped it
Landmark buildings
Plan your visit
On the map
When to go
Spring, particularly late April through May, brings mild temperatures around 13–17°C and the least rainfall of the year — good conditions for sitting outside. Summer averages 19–22°C with occasional showers; autumn turns wetter and windier from October onward, and winter winds off the streets can be sharp.
Right now
Background & history adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) · specs from Wikidata (CC0) · weather from Open-Meteo · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · photos from Wikimedia Commons / Unsplash with per-image credit. No third-party reviews or social posts reproduced.