When the citizens of Amsterdam decided in the 17th century to extend their town, they dug their city canals in semicircles around the old centre. On each canal or gracht were tree-lined streets on both sides of the water. But these proud Amsterdam citizens were quite the jokers. They called the first and paramount gracht after themselves: the Heerengracht: the gracht of the Heeren, the Masters of Amsterdam.
The second one they called the Keizersgracht: the gracht of the Emperors; and the third one, further from the centre, the Prinsengracht: the gracht of the Princes. In that way they indicated that the Heeren – being themselves – were more important than Emperors, who are (of course) more important than Princes. A kind of practical joke.
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