Canal-boat commentators and other tourist guides like to point out the narrowest house in Amsterdam. They account for the phenomenon by explaining that property was taxed on frontage - the narrower the house the lower the tax, regardless of the height.
There is some truth in this, but it seems as if each guide has a different narrowest' house. So which house holds the record? The house at Oude Hoogstraat 22 east of Dam Square is 2.02m wide and 6m deep. Occupying a mere 12 sq metres it could well be the least space-consuming self-contained house in Europe (though it's a few storeys high).
The house at Singel 7 is narrower still, consisting of just a door and a slim, 1st-floor window, but canal-boat commentators fail to point out that it's actually the rear entrance of a house of normal proportions.
Farther along and on the other side of Singel at No 144 is a house that measures only 1.8m across the front; it widens to 5m at the rear and experts with nothing better to do will argue whether this counts. |
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