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Amsterdam Attractions & ActivitiesReligious Sites
Interested in places that bear a significant connection to spirituality? Look over our list of Religious Sites, some of which also have historical import. Among the offerings are places of worship and sites that commemorate religious events or people.
Category: Religious Sites - Amsterdam Attractions & Activities
Address: Gedempte Begijnensloot, Amsterdam
Secreted away in the midst of the city is this enclosed courtyard, ringed by a series of white-trimmed, brick dwellings. The peaceful enclave was, in former centuries, home to a community of religious women (although not nuns) who supported the church with their charitable endeavors. This cluster of buildings was their domain, the area from which...
Museum Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder
Category: Religious Sites - Amsterdam Attractions & Activities
Address: Oudezijds Voorburgwal 40, Amsterdam 1012 GE
Also known as Museum Amstelkring, this fascinating sanctuary dates from a period when only the Dutch Reformed Church was permitted to hold public services. Practitioners of other religions were forced to gather secretly in privately owned buildings throughout the city. This 17th-century merchant's home was a haven for Catholics of the era. Its...
Category: Religious Sites - Amsterdam Attractions & Activities
Address: Dam Square, next to the Royal Palace, Amsterdam
Equated with England's Westminster Abbey since Dutch monarchs are inaugurated here, the Nieuwe Kerk had its foundations laid in the 14th century. Built as a Catholic sanctuary, it survived the nation's change to Protestantism, although it lost much of its original decoration. Even so, subsequent building efforts provided the church with beautiful...
Category: Religious Sites - Amsterdam Attractions & Activities
Address: Noordermarkt 48, Amsterdam 1015 NA
Designed by Hendrick de Keyser and constructed in the early 1620s, this church boasts a geometrical sensibility consistent with the era's humanist ideology. Its form is of a Greek cross, with four equidistant arms. The sanctuary, still used by the Protestant congregation, features large Tuscan pillars and a barrel-vaulted ceiling. At the juncture...
Category: Religious Sites - Amsterdam Attractions & Activities
Address: Oudekerksplein, Amsterdam 1012 GX
Amsterdam's oldest building, this imposing Dutch Brick Gothic church was begun in the late 13th century. In its early days, before the Nieuwe Kerk was built, it was the center of the city's religious life. Among its claims to fame are its spectacular Vater-Müller organ and its small chapels. It's also where Rembrandt registered to marry his wife,...
Category: Religious Sites - Amsterdam Attractions & Activities
Address: Mr. Visserplein 3, Amsterdam 1011 RD
This synagogue, completed in 1675, was designed by Elias Bouwman and took Jerusalem's Temple of Solomon as its inspiration. The structure was a refuge long hoped-for by its congregation, descendants of 15th-century Spanish (or Sephardic) Jews who fled to Portugal to escape religious persecution. These people were later forced to become Christians,...
Category: Religious Sites - Amsterdam Attractions & Activities
Address: Prinsengracht 281, Amsterdam 1016 GW
Completed in 1631, this church was designed by Hendrick de Keyser and boasts the city's tallest tower. The Protestant church also serves as a city symbol and is where Rembrandt was buried in 1669 and Queen Beatrix married in 1966. Inside, light floods the sanctuary from clerestory windows, illuminating the pale arcades and barrel-vaulted ceilings....
Category: Religious Sites - Amsterdam Attractions & Activities
Address: Zuiderkerkhof 72, Amsterdam 1011 WB
Designed by city architect Hendrick de Keyser (as were many churches of this period), the Zuiderkerk was completed in 1611. The ornate tower of Amsterdam's first Protestant church was finished in 1614. De Keyser himself was buried in the church in 1621, and the sanctuary served as a holding place for the numerous bodies of those who didn't survive...
