Treeftsteeg

There are a number of lanes and passageways that connect the canals/roads Singel and Herengracht in central Amsterdam. One of the narrowest of them is Treeftsteeg.

below: Entrance to the alley, from Herengracht.

entrance to Treeftsteeg, a narrow alley, with graffiti painted on the walls

Various messages and symbols of peace – “I Love Kherson”, a girl waving a large Ukranian flag, “Love no War” (Love not war?), a white dove with wings of blue and gold, “Love makes a house a home”. In addition (under the word Kherson) there is a portrait of George Yurri Shevelov (1908-2002). His CV is long but in general he is most known for his research proving that the Ukrainian language has a separate history from Russian.

words and portraits painted in an alley

below: The portrait of the man in the top left corner is of Taras Shevchenko (1814 – 1861), a famous Ukrainian poet. Moving right, the woman at the top with the orange background is the former Queen of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix. Third from the left is Ukrainian writer and feminist Lesya Ukrainka whose work spanned the late 1800s and early 1900s. On the right side there is an image of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy although it is not the clearest picture.

anti war, pro Ukraine graffiti in an alley

below: Commemorating the sinking of the Moskva, a Russian ship in the Black Sea near the beginning of the war.

painted graffiti in an alley

below: arrow showing the way to Kharkiv

graffiti in an alley, a red arrow pointing left with word Kherson written in it

below: caricatures

graffiti, faces, portraits

below: The narrowness of Treeftsteeg. Along with the pro-Ukraine messages, there are a few black and white portraits.

bicycles parked and leaning against walls in a very narrow alley

a black and white portrait of a man, pasted on wall that is blue and yellow

below: These portraits are part of “A Paper Monument to the Paperless” is an ongoing project headed by Dutch artist Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries.

portraits, posters on an alley wall, part of A Paper Monument to the Paperless, a project by Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries

a painting of a person wearing long red pants sitting under a tree