What Makes the Netherlands Special: Canals, Art and Dutch Pride

The Netherlands is a small country with a huge story: a nation that reclaimed much of its land from the sea, canal cities known around the world, painters who changed the history of art, and a way of life built around bikes, flowers and being gezellig. Here is what makes it special.

World Heritage shaped by water

UNESCO lists 13 World Heritage properties for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Many tell the story of the Dutch relationship with water:

• Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam, the city's famous rings of canals
• Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout, the classic Dutch windmill landscape
• Wadden Sea, a vast tidal wetland shared with Germany and Denmark
• Dutch Water Defence Lines, a system of forts and flooding defences
• Rietveld Schröderhuis, a landmark of modern architecture in Utrecht

A country built against the sea

Much of the Netherlands lies at or below sea level. Over centuries, the Dutch built dykes, drained land and developed water engineering that the world still learns from.

Masters of art

Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh are among the most celebrated painters in history, and Dutch museums hold some of the world's greatest art.

Bikes, tulips and cheese

Cycling is how many Dutch people get everywhere. Tulip fields in spring, and cheeses such as Gouda and Edam, are known around the world.

Gezellig

The Dutch word gezellig describes a warm, sociable, comfortable atmosphere, a feeling that is at the heart of Dutch life and hard to find anywhere else.

Proud cities

Amsterdam is the name the world knows, but every Dutch city has its own character and pride.

Carrying the pride with you

Canals, windmills, great art and a nation built against the sea: the Netherlands gives its people a great deal to celebrate. That pride is what our Netherlands designs are made for, and our guide to choosing a gift based on someone's home town shows how to make it personal.