The so-called 'grachtengordel' is a uniquely important and magnificent historical and cultural document. It not only strikingly expanded the city, but was widely praised for its great beauty.
As a result of the ring of canals Amsterdam, by all travellers' accounts, came to surpass nearly all other European cities in grandeur. Today there is no other comparably impressive urban historical phenomenon dating from the seventeenth century that exists on a comparable scale, is so well preserved, so attractive and so easily accessible.