I recently went to amsterdam, holland and i realized the doors there are ALL very narrow. WHy is that?

Question

I recently went to amsterdam, holland and i realized the doors there are ALL very narrow. They said that the doors are narrow so the furnitures have to be moved through the windows. and i heard that there is a myth about why the doors are narrow, but i don't know what it is, can anyone tell me why the doors are so narrow?

Answer 1

I have often been in Amsterdam and I have never noticed the doors being narrow.
I have also been in other countries and never noticed the doors as being wide, so I am not sure whether I have missed something or you have a wrong impression.

The reason the furniture often has to be moved in through the windows are the narrow staircases, often with bends in them too.
And those stairs are so narrow to save space. Ground in Amsterdam has always been expensive so most housing is build as ground economic as possible in the time and apartment buildings were not (yet) invented when most of these houses where build.
And the Amsterdam ground would not support a building as heavy as the early apartment buildings anyhow.

Answer 2

Amsterdam is famous for it's very narrow, tall, long buildings with narrow, steep stairways. This was done because property taxes depended on the frontage of the residence. The length or height of the house didn't matter, only the width so, of course, homes were very narrow. The narrowest in Amsterdam is found at 7 Singel where the the front of the house is barely wider than a front door. The entire frontage is just one meter wide.

Answer 3

I live in Holland and sometimes go to Amsterdam.

In some older buildings the doors are smaller (and probably narrower) because people were smaller in history. I don't see why our recently built buildings (1900 - now) have narrow doors. I don't think they have actually.