Oude Kerk

15 Exciting Facts About the Oude Kerk

1. Location: The Oude Kerk stands in the heart of Amsterdam, in the De Wallen district, surrounded by famous canals and historic houses. Thanks to its striking position, it is one of the central landmarks of the old town.
2. Significance: The Oude Kerk is considered the oldest surviving building in the city and ranks among Amsterdam’s most well-known churches. Each year, it attracts an average of just over 100,000 paying visitors, making it one of the city’s most important historic landmarks.
3. A Living Meeting Place: For centuries, the Oude Kerk was far more than a place of worship and was deeply woven into everyday life in the city. Fishermen repaired their nets here, and sailors came to seek support for a safe voyage. Many marriage certificates were signed inside the church, while important city documents were at times stored in the so-called Iron Chapel, a particularly secure room within the building. Today, alongside regular services, the Oude Kerk mainly serves as a venue for concerts, exhibitions, and cultural events.
4. Earlier Structure: Long before the present church was built, the site already served as a burial ground, as shown by a more than 800-year-old tree-trunk grave beneath the building. This type of burial, in a hollowed-out tree trunk, is now considered rather rare in the Netherlands. It is also very likely that a small wooden chapel stood here around 1250. Although this chapel has not yet been conclusively proven through archaeological evidence, the early cemetery strongly suggests such a predecessor.
5. Construction History: The Oude Kerk was not built in a single phase but developed over more than 300 years, evolving from an early brick church around 1300 into the large hall church seen today. What is particularly striking is how extensively the structure was repeatedly transformed. Around 1370, the church received a significantly larger choir, and by about 1391, the older nave was replaced with a wide hall featuring three nearly equal-height aisles. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the hall choir, the transept chapels, and the elevation of the central nave, choir, and tower were added, gradually shaping the church’s present-day silhouette. It is quite remarkable that this development can still be traced so clearly, as the Oude Kerk survived the major city fires of the Middle Ages and therefore preserves a large portion of its original structure.
6. Architecture: The Oude Kerk is an impressive example of Dutch Gothic architecture and is particularly known for its wooden barrel vaults and tall pointed-arch windows, which fill the interior with light. Despite numerous alterations over the centuries, the church has preserved its distinctive character as a hall church and is now regarded as an important testament to medieval architecture in the Netherlands.
7. Iconoclasm of 1566: Iconoclasm refers to a period during which people deliberately destroyed religious images and symbols because they considered them false or inappropriate. The Oude Kerk was severely affected in 1566 and lost much of its rich Catholic interior. This wave of destruction was driven by a mix of religious conflict, social hardship, and growing resistance to Spanish rule. Many followers of the emerging Protestant movement rejected the splendor of the Catholic Church and viewed it as a form of idolatry. When Amsterdam officially became Protestant in 1578, the Oude Kerk also permanently passed into Protestant hands and has been used for Protestant services ever since.
8. Major Restoration: After World War II, the structure of the Oude Kerk was significantly weakened, and parts of it became so unstable that the church had to be temporarily closed in the early 1950s. The causes, however, were less related to direct war damage and more to centuries-old foundation issues combined with long-neglected maintenance. Only a comprehensive restoration carried out between 1955 and 1978 fully stabilized the building and made it permanently usable again.
9. Wooden Barrel Vaults: The Oude Kerk is spanned by large wooden barrel vaults that were installed at the end of the 14th century and give the interior its sense of space and height. A wooden barrel vault is a semi-circular ceiling structure made of curved wooden beams, stretching across the space like a horizontal barrel. These vaults were originally richly painted, but after the Reformation they were covered over and gradually forgotten. It was not until the restoration beginning in 1955 that the medieval paintings were rediscovered and partially revealed.
10. Grave Slab Floor: The floor of the Oude Kerk consists almost entirely of grave slabs and extends over an area of around 3,300 square meters, beneath which more than 60,000 people have been buried. Over 2,000 gravestones commemorate citizens, merchants, artists, and notable figures. Wealthy residents were often able to secure burial rights during their lifetime, while the church administration managed the allocation, fees, and later use of the graves. As a result, the floor became not only a place of remembrance but also an exceptional record of Amsterdam’s urban history.
11. Grave of Saskia van Uylenburgh: Saskia van Uylenburgh was the wife of Rembrandt, one of the most renowned painters in Dutch art history. After her early death in 1642, she was buried in the Oude Kerk, where her grave is located in the Weitkoperskapel and listed as grave 29. Its exact location was forgotten for a long time and was only rediscovered in the 20th century. The current inscription “Saskia 19 juni 1642” dates from 1953. Each year on March 9, a ray of sunlight briefly falls on her grave in the morning, an event marked by a special commemorative ceremony in the church.
12. Historic Stained Glass Window: In the Mariakapel of the Oude Kerk, one of the most significant historic stained glass windows has been preserved in the form of the so-called Crabeth window. Designed in 1555 by Dirck Crabeth, it depicts the death of Mary, surrounded by the apostles in a strikingly composed scene. The work is one of the few surviving stained glass windows from before the Reformation and serves as a reminder that the church originally featured 25 richly colored windows.
13. Red Window: In 2018, Italian artist Giorgio Andreotta Calò transformed the Oude Kerk into a glowing red interior with his project Anastasis by temporarily fitting all windows with red filters. As a lasting reminder of this exhibition, the Holy Sepulchre Chapel was later fitted with a red stained glass window. This permanent intervention in particular sparked intense debate, as heritage conservationists and citizen initiatives viewed it as an excessive alteration of the church’s historical appearance. After years of legal disputes, however, the window was allowed to remain and is now considered one of the most prominent modern artworks in the Oude Kerk.
14. Origin of the Name: The Oude Kerk, meaning Old Church, was originally dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors, and was initially known as Sint Nicolaaskerk. The name Oude Kerk only became established after the consecration of the Nieuwe Kerk in 1409, in order to distinguish the older church from the newer one. Since the Reformation in 1578, this name has been firmly established and remains in use to this day.
15. Memorial to Sex Workers: The bronze sculpture Belle stands directly in front of the Oude Kerk on Oudekerksplein and was unveiled in 2007. It depicts a self-assured sex worker standing in a doorway and carries the clear message “Respect sex workers all over the world”. The memorial was initiated by former sex worker Mariska Majoor. Mariska Majoor is a Dutch former sex worker, author, and activist from Amsterdam who, after several years working in the red-light district, founded the Prostitution Information Center and continues to advocate publicly for education, respect, and the rights of sex workers.