Notes, thoughts and commentaries from the travels of Joseph Connolly and Terry Pochert
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On our travels throughout the Netherlands, we constantly came across many, many symbols of the three Xs. As novice travelers, we had to find out what all this means.
The three Xs you see all over Amsterdam — on flags, manhole covers, city hall, and even on street poles — are St. Andrew’s Crosses.
They aren’t about the “XXX” you might associate with adult entertainment or the famous Amsterdam’s Red Light District — that’s just a modern coincidence.
They come from Amsterdam’s coat of arms, which dates back to the 15th century. The city adopted the emblem from the noble Persijn family, who owned land in the area in the 1200s.
St. Andrew’s Cross: Named after Saint Andrew, who, according to tradition, was martyred on a diagonal cross.
Symbolism today: Often interpreted as standing for the city’s motto — Heldhaftig, Vastberaden, Barmhartig (“Valiant, Steadfast, Compassionate”) — which was added by Queen Wilhelmina in 1947 in honor of the city’s bravery during World War II.
Folk Theory
Many Amsterdammers will tell you the three Xs stand for water, fire, and plague — the three historic threats the city had to survive repeatedly over the centuries:
- Water – Amsterdam is below sea level, so flooding from the Amstel River and the Zuiderzee (now the IJsselmeer) was a constant danger.
- Fire – Before brick building became common, the city’s wooden houses caught fire often; huge blazes destroyed large sections of Amsterdam in the Middle Ages.
- Plague – Bubonic plague outbreaks in the 16th and 17th centuries wiped out large portions of the population.
It’s a tidy symbolic story, but historians agree it’s more folklore than fact. The crosses were already in use as heraldry centuries before those events were linked together in this way.
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