This beautiful building is an attraction in itself, so if you did not arrive in Amsterdam by train, it is well worth making a special trip to look at the station's facade. The station was built between 1881 and 1889 on three artificial islands. It was designed by Pierre Cuypers who also designed the Rijksmuseum in a similar neo-late-Gothic/Renaissance style. At the time, the project was highly controversial as the new station would effectively cut off the city from the IJ waterfront. Politicians in The Hague pushed it through anyway, and now it is widely regarded as the most beautiful station in the country.