Weesperplein

The station lies beneath the Weesperplein, near the site of the former Weesperpoort, one of Amsterdam's city gates. Later the Weesperpoort railway station stood nearby, from 1843 to 1939 the starting point of the line to Utrecht and Arnhem.

A fallout shelter for 12,000 people

Weesperplein is a station with a hidden floor. It opened in October 1977 as part of Amsterdam's first metro and has two underground levels. The lower one was built for a planned East-West Line, but on 19 March 1975 the city cancelled that line, and the empty space was given a very different purpose.

The whole station was fitted out as a public shelter against nuclear attack, for 12,000 people: the largest in Amsterdam, completed in 1979. The unused level alone could hold 5,000. Large sliding doors could seal the access tunnels and anyone entering passed through an airlock. A huge sliding gate could close the station off from the metro tunnel; it still serves as a flood barrier. Public shelters were no longer maintained from 1999, and in 2004 the equipment made way for smoke extraction. At the entrance on Rhijnspoorplein and Sarphatistraat the airlock and doors can still be seen.

The station hall features Luchtspiegelingen (Mirages) by Matthijs van Dam: twelve panels showing streets seen from below. Pieter Engels made three bronze beams that together form the letter A, the Signature of the Anonymous Worker.