Cultural Centers in De Pijp, Rivierenbuurt
A Neighbourhood of Reused Buildings
This vibrant neighbourhood holds a series of cultural centers, each offering its own glimpse into the city’s creative soul. From experimental art spaces to live music venues, the cultural centers of De Pijp and Rivierenbuurt serve as dynamic hubs for artistic expression and community life.
One building ties several of these threads together, and its own history is worth telling in full.
Tempel Amsterdam
Tempel Amsterdam
In 1927, architects Brinkman and Van der Vlugt built a meeting hall for the Theosophical Society on the Tolstraat, at what is now number 160. The building has rarely stood still since.
It served first as a synagogue, and later, during and after the Second World War, as a cinema known as CinéTol. From 1985, it housed a branch of the Amsterdam Public Library, still remembered locally as the “Cinetol Library” long after the cinema itself had closed. In 2021, the building was renovated and reopened as Tempel Amsterdam, a creative incubator space with studios, a stage, and rentable multi-purpose rooms. It no longer serves any religious function, but the monumental building still fills with the same kind of energy that first brought people there a century ago, connecting people and ideas rather than beliefs.
Theosophy in De Pijp
Theosophy found an unusually enthusiastic following among artists in this period, including the painter Piet Mondriaan. The architect Karel de Bazel, who designed the building now housing Amsterdam’s city archive, was another committed theosophist. As a self-described “priest-artist,” he believed true beauty in art always rested on cosmic, geometric forms: squares, circles, and triangles. From buildings to chairs to inkwells, he designed everything from that same theosophical starting point.
Theosofie, Stadsarchief Amsterdam
The Theosophical Society in the Netherlands is still active today, as part of the international Theosophical Society headquartered in Adyar, India.
Theosofische Vereniging in Nederland
For readers curious just how many theosophical organisations exist in the Netherlands, and how they differ, Katinka Hesselink has written a clear guide to the largest three.
Mondriaan’s Theosophical Society Involvement
In 1908, Piet Mondriaan became interested in the Theosophical Society, and on 25 May 1909, he formally joined its Dutch section. The society’s founder, Madame Blavatsky, believed a deeper knowledge of nature was possible, beyond what could be reached through empirical observation alone. That belief shaped much of Mondriaan’s work for the rest of his life, as he kept searching for that same spiritual knowledge through painting. Alongside Blavatsky’s own writings, Mondriaan is known to have read the French author Édouard Schuré and the work of Rudolf Steiner directly.
Mondriaan’s Theosophical Society involvement, Villa Mondriaan
Read more about Mondriaan’s years living beside the park itself on our Sarphatipark page.
Cinetol
Cinetol today is a small-scale music venue, a breeding ground for creative talent, and a home for cultural programmes, gatherings, and events. Several rooms are available to rent, and the Tolbar café sits on the ground floor. The stage hosts multiple programmes each week, mostly live music, and dozens of creative entrepreneurs and musicians work here daily. The building also holds workspaces, meeting rooms, studios, and rehearsal spaces.
Note that today’s Cinetol occupies a newer building, built in the 1980s right next door to the historic Tolstraat 160 temple. It carries the name forward, but is not the same building where Mondriaan’s generation once gathered.
De Appel
De Appel, the contemporary art center, moved its programming into Tempel Amsterdam in the Diamantbuurt in 2024, hosted there with support from the City of Amsterdam. Amsterdam’s alderman for Art and Culture, Touria Meliani, opened the new location that year. From this building, De Appel continues its ongoing cultural projects and launches new ones, in the same historic hall where Mondriaan’s generation once gathered to read Blavatsky, Schuré, and Steiner.