Museum Amstelkring (Our Lord in the Attic), Amsterdam 
Many more views in our Our Lord in the Attic Church Photo Gallery.
Satellite map of the Church of Our Lord in the Attic.
For a larger view, see our Amsterdam Map or Google Earth download.
With its elegant gray-and-white facade and spout gable, the Museum Amstelkring or Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder ("Our Lord in the Attic") Church appears to be just another canal house, and on the lower floors it is.
The attic, however, contains something unique: the only surviving schuilkerken (clandestine church) that dates from the Reformation, when open worship by Catholics was outlawed in Amsterdam.
Since the Oude Kerk was relieved of its original patron, St. Nicholas, when it was de-catholicized, this became the church dedicated to him until the Sint Nicolaaskerk was built.
The chapel itself is a triumph of Dutch classicist taste, with magnificent marble columns, gilded capitals, a colored-marble altar, and the Baptism of Christ (1716) painting by Jacob de Wit presiding over all.
Services and weddings are still offered here, so consider attending a Sunday service in this, one of Amsterdam's most beautiful houses of worship.
The grandeur continues throughout the house, which was renovated by merchant Jan Hartan between 1661 and 1663. Even the kitchen and chaplain bedroom remain furnished in the style of the age, and the drawing room, or 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 and sculptures.
Quick Facts
| Address: | OudeZijde Voorburgwal 40, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Phone: | 020/624-6604 |
| URL: | http://www.museumamstelkring.nl/ |
| Hours: | Mon.-Sat. 10-5, Sun. 1-5 |
| Cost: | EUR6 |
Sources
- Personal visit (November 2006)
- Fodor's Amsterdam
