Episode 6: Our Lord in the Attic Chapel and Museum

The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and on Sundays and public holidays from 1 pm to 5 pm. The museum is closed on 26th of April.You are now going along the canal that is called Oudezijds Voorburgwal. It is located in the heart of Red Light District which hosts the most interesting, beautiful and rare churches. Do not be surprised, you are just about to learn about one of them - Our Lord in the Attic Chapel or Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder. As could be understood from the title the church is situated in the attic of a quite typical Amsterdam canal house. This will be on your right hand side, the house number is 40, please do not miss it. This is second oldest museum in Amsterdam after Rijksmuseum. This Catholic chapel was founded in mid-17th century by wealthy merchant Jan Hartman. In Protestant Amsterdam of those days Catholics were forbidden to practice their services publicly, so Hartman managed to create a secret chapel in the attic of his newly bought house along with a storage and a shop on the ground floor. Then Catholics living in this area started coming to the church and it immediately became known and popular. As always, in the beginning it was a big secret, but later on the information got around. At the time though the years of revolution had passed and Amsterdam authorities were willing to overlook the Catholic chapel. Later on the house was purchased by a priest Ludovicus Reiniers who improved the access to the chapel by building a better staircase.So for about two hundred years Our Lord in the Attic served as a parish church for all Catholics who lived in the centre of Amsterdam.The chapel takes up the whole upper floor consisting of long narrow nave and seats for about 150 people. It is decorated in Dutch Classicist style and hosts a fairly well-known painting by Jacob de Wit - The Baptism of Christ.The rest of the house is a museum showing the typical Golden Age 17th century Dutch house.The museum and the chapel are definitely worth visiting. But in case you decide not to, we provide you with some photos in our menu.
Photo 'Our Lord In The Attic' Amstelkring Museum by Olivier Bruchez is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0