Which city is the constitutional capital of the Netherlands?

The Dutch split their capital functions, and the split is written into the constitution, which names Amsterdam as the capital while the government does its work elsewhere. The reason is historical. The Dutch Republic had no monarch and no single capital; the States General met at The Hague, which had grown up around the counts of Holland's court, while Amsterdam was the commercial powerhouse whose merchants and canal-ring wealth funded the state. When the kingdom was established in the nineteenth century, Amsterdam's status as the nation's principal city was formally acknowledged, but the machinery of government stayed put in The Hague rather than being uprooted. The result is that royal inaugurations take place in Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk on Dam Square, next to the palace that was originally built as the city hall, while parliament and the ministries operate in another city entirely.

The palace on Dam Square in Amsterdam began life as the city hall of the wealthy merchant republic.