If you are looking for something to do in Noord, how about some corpse watching? It might seem brutal, but around 1350, that was a normal day out for the whole Amsterdam family. This stretch of the Volewijk owes its name to serving as a gallows field for four centuries. You could see the dead sitting or hanging in the wind, frighting anyone who inhabited or sailed into Amsterdam: Respect this city’s laws and rules, or else....

Crime, the expo

Among the dead there were many immigrants and poor people. They would have been put to death on Dam Square and dragged to the quay. Once they had crossed to the other side, they were put on display along with the object of their crime. The artist Rembrandt once drew the Danish girl Elsje. Look, there she was. The axe above her head is the one with which she supposedly attacked her landlady.