Amsterdam’s gem: A historic, hidden church
By NADIA POZO
CS&T Staff Writer
"When I left Central Station, I turned left,” I told my cousin, who quickly exclaimed, horrified, “What? You went to the Red Light District?”
Yes, in fact, that was exactly where I headed when I arrived in Amsterdam — but not for the usual reasons tourists go there.
I had been on a blind-man’s search for a hidden church — which just happened to be located in the Red Light District.
My cousin laughed. “Only you would head to the Red Light District to visit a church.”
When I was making my way to the Netherlands for my nephew’s baptism — I am his godmother — I stumbled on a magazine that described one of Amsterdam’s oldest museums, the Amstelkring Museum.
I was intrigued when I read that it is also called “Our Lord in the Attic,” because of a hidden church that was constructed in the attic of the home of a wealthy merchant decades after Amsterdam became officially Protestant in 1578, and Catholics were forbidden to worship in public.
The secret church was the only one of its kind still remaining, and it was practically in its original state.
I decided it would be my first stop in Amsterdam. Of course, I was unaware then that it was in the city’s Red Light District.
With no map in hand, I got off the train at Central Station — the main train station in the heart of the city.
The Damrak was directly in front of me. That’s Amsterdam’s picturesque main street, which is filled with bars, cafes, and bicycles.
As I headed left, beautiful 17th century architecture and quaint cobblestone streets surrounded me. Right away, I fell in love with the charming canals that dot the city.
Amsterdam was once the most important port of the world, and an international center for banking. It was also once known as a Catholic city. Today, it’s a different world. Anything goes in a city that has unionized prostitution.
As I neared the Red Light District, still unaware of where I was headed, I could smell marijuana. Soon the landscape started to change around me as I plunged deeper and deeper into a maze of narrow streets.
“XXX” signs popped up everywhere, porn shops replaced the line of row homes and then — “Wait, is that a construction worker smoking pot? I must be completely lost,” I thought.
I had to ask for directions. My choice was to ask the weed-inhaling worker, or an obviously strung-out homeless man across the street.
The construction worker had no idea what I was talking about: “What, a church?”
Then the homeless man asked if he could help me. He knew all about the church, and assured me I was in the right place, although he was a bit hazy as to where, exactly, it might be: “Just keep going straight, and you’ll run right into it.”
Sure enough I found a church.
It was not the hidden church, but De Oude Kerk or “The Old Church” — the earliest Catholic parish church, built right after Amsterdam was founded in the 13th century. The church had taken more than three centuries to complete, as it was gradually transformed from a wooden, single-nave chapel to a hall church, and then to a basilica.
Then, during the Protestant Reformation’s iconoclastic fury of 1566, the church was violently looted and many of its sacred images were destroyed.
The victory of the Calvinists in 1578 made the violation nearly complete. Images of saints and altars disappeared from the church.
Wall paintings in the church vaults were saved only because they were difficult to reach; they were painted over many times. Stained-glass windows of the Virgin Mary, which had been set in place in 1550, were also spared, even though the church soon after became a Protestant church.
The church was near collapse by 1951. It was closed four years, until a foundation was formed to restore and preserve it. It reopened in 1979.
Today “the Old Church’ is considered a historical monument. Along with providing space for exhibitions from time to time, it is rented out for parties, receptions and other social and cultural events. It also functions as a museum, and offers a Sunday service of the Reformed Congregation. Among those buried there is Saskia van Rijn, the wife of the magnificent 17th century artist, Rembrandt van Rijn.
It was an unexpected, but pleasant discovery.
Not so pleasant was discovering that the streets outside the church are lined with ‘display windows’ of prostitutes. I realized where I was, and I found it most humorous that I was lost in the Red Light District — of all places.
But with a quick prayer and the help of a shopkeeper, I finally found the hidden church.
Save for a small sign that says, ‘Museum’, there was no way of distinguishing the church, with its elegant, gray-and-white facade and spout gable, from the other townhouses that line the canal.
I suppose that was the point, after all.
When the rich merchant who built it, Jan Hartman, created the secret church, it was because Catholic worship had been banned in Amsterdam for much of the 17th century.
He bought three adjacent buildings — one on the canal and two smaller buildings directly behind it.
He turned the first two floors into his family’s home. And he joined and converted the lofts of all three buildings into a stunning church dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors. Amsterdam was originally a fishing town, so the dedication seems appropriate.
After decades in which Catholics were forced to meet in secret, the city loosened its ban on Catholic worship — just slightly. Protestant authorities turned a blind eye if Catholics worshipped in the privacy of their homes, and if such “homes” were not obvious from the street. Those attending worship at “Our Lord in the Attic” had to enter through an alley door.
The relaxing of the laws occured after Hartman’s death in 1668, but by that time the house had been bought by Jan Reynst, a Protestant merchant. Reynst planned to rent the attic as storage space, but realized he could make more money charging Catholic worshipers for continued use of their “secret” church, thus Catholics paid a huge yearly sum of money for that “freedom of religion.”
The attic church, itself, is a triumph of Dutch-classicist taste, with magnificent marble columns and gilded capitals. The colored-marble Baroque altar — added in the 18th-century redecoration of the church — is the church’s focal point.
It’s a breathtaking sight, when you push open the door at the top of the narrow stairs. The eye is led naturally from the great Jacob de Wit’s 1716 altarpiece — a stunning painting showing the Baptism of Christ — up to the stucco artwork of God the Father and the Holy Spirit, who is portrayed as a dove.
The loft sections of two of the buildings were opened to form seating galleries, with two beams across their length held in place with iron tie-beams instead of wooden crossbeams.
Much of the construction is suspended from the roof; the clever combination of architecture, sculpture and painting creates an illusion of space.
“I can’t believe this is up here,” was all I could think, in awe.
Opposite the altar is a towering organ built by Hendrik Meyer in 1794 especially for the hidden church — also installed during the 18th century redecoration — which is still played regularly today. The windpipes of the organ can be seen under the gallery floor.
And what do you know? When I looked through the windows of the gallery, on one side I could see the “Old Church” I had “stumbled” upon, very close by — and on the other side, I could see the dome of St. Nicola’s Church, the area’s current parish church.
“Our Lord in the Attic” chapel, also called “The Hart,” held regular services from 1663 until 1887, when St. Nicola was dedicated and became the prominent church.
The grandeur of the hidden church continues throughout the house, which Hartman had renovated between 1661 and 1663. Even the kitchen and chaplain’s bedroom are furnished in the style of the age, and the parlour room, called the Sael, looks as if it were plucked from a Vermeer painting. With its gold chandelier and Solomonic columns, it’s one of the most impressive 17th-century rooms left in Amsterdam.
Besides boasting other canvases by Thomas de Keyser, Jan Wynants, and Abraham de Vries, the house also displays impressive collections of church silver such as monstrances, pyx, and various fine altar ornaments, as well as sculptures.
In 1888, fortunately, a group of amateur historians formed a society to save the building from demolition, and to use it to house a collection of Catholic artifacts from Amsterdam.
Today, Midnight Mass is still celebrated in the once-clandestine church, as well as special Masses, weddings and sacred music concerts.
After I spent a couple of hours in complete amazement, it was time to go.
I thanked God for my “misadventure.” The hidden church was definitely worth it.
CS&T staff writer Nadia Pozo can be reached at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.
How to find the ‘hidden church
“Our Lord in the Attic” is actually quite easy to find with a handy map. It’s a seven-minute walk from Amsterdam’s Central Station and it’s located at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 40 — two blocks from the Old Church.
General information: You can find a map and more information at http://www.museumamstelkring.nl or call 00 31 20 624 6604.
Transportation: Tram: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 13, 16, 17, 24, or 25 to Central Station
Hours: Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun. 1 p.m.-5 p.m.; closed on January 1 and April 30.
Admission: 7€ adults, 5€ seniors/children, 1€ children under 18
Guided tours: It’s possible to visit the Museum Amstelkring, Our Lord in the Attic, with assistance from a guide from the museum. A guided tour (max. 20 persons per guide) takes about one hour and costs 40€ on weekdays (including Friday), and on the weekend 45€. You have to make a reservation in the museum for a guided tour at least one week in advance by phone or in person.
Additional information: The museum is child-friendly and it’s also possible to request a special tour for children. It is not handicapped- accessible, however, nor is it recommended for those who would have difficulty walking up narrow stairs. You can take your own tour with a free guided brochure and easily spend a hour or more.
Known as the “Venice of the North,” Amsterdam is built on 90 islands. Thirteen hundred bridges — 400 of which are stone — link the islands across 62 miles of canals, which fan out from the heart of the old city. The first settlement on the banks of the river Amstel, thus Amstelredam, was founded in 1275 to keep the Zuiderzee sea from swamping the city. The Dam Square located there is filled with locals and tourists, day and night.
Amsterdam is a beautiful city that’s easily explored on foot, bike, tram or by canal cruise. It’s known not only for it’s canals, but its famed 17th and 18th century gabled houses that line the waterways, and 42 outstanding museums reflecting the city’s cultural diversity and appealing to a wide range of interests. They include Ann Frank’s House, Rembrandt’s House, the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum.
Amsterdam is a city not to be missed.