De Hollandsche Manege

Welcome to De Hollandsche Manege, the oldest riding school in the Netherlands, tucked away on Vondelstraat right at the edge of Vondelpark. It looks serious and grand from the outside, and that is entirely intentional. The story starts in 1744, when the original riding school opened on the Lijnbaansgracht. Back then, the complex was so fancy that it also housed a stately pikemen's residence, the kind of place where important people came to be seen.

And important people did show up. In 1766, a ten-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his sister Marianne performed here. Yes, Mozart. In a riding school. History is wonderfully strange sometimes. By 1881, the whole operation moved to this beautiful neoclassical building on Vondelstraat, inspired by the legendary Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Inside you will find two riding arenas and stables for 50 horses, all very elegant and very Dutch. Now, the less glamorous chapter. In 2019, an animal rights organisation exposed serious welfare problems for the horses living here. Heritage organisation Stadsherstel Amsterdam, which had already purchased the stables in 2018, stepped in with plans to restore the building and properly care for its four-legged residents. A happy ending, at least for the horses.