Amstelkring Museum Our Lord in the Attic, Amsterdam

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Based in a 17th century canal house, Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic) is wonderful church and museum in the city center.

The church was built on the top three floors during the 1660s as a clandestine church for Catholics during the time of the Reformation as they were unable to worship in public.

The unique hidden church has galleries, a large altar and some 150 seats.

Below the top three floors, the rest of the building is a museum housing rooms from the 17th and 19th centuries where you will find displays of paintings, sculpture and silver providing an overview of Catholic history in Amsterdam.

Opening hours :
Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 17:00
Sundays and public holidays from 13:00 to 17.00

The museum is closed on 1 January and 30 April.

Admission :
Adults - € 7,00
Children (5 to 18 years) - € 1,00
Students/CJP/Stadspas - € 5,00
Children under 5 years - free
Museumjaarkaart/ICOM - free
IAMsterdam Card - free

You can not leave Amsterdam without visiting this wonderful museum called: "Museum Amstelkring-Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder-Our Lord in the Attic"!

The reason? Even in the so "liberal" Amsterdam, there was a time-after the Reformation (1578)-that the Catholic community was in a way "persecuted" and the only way to survive was to turn "invisible" and to meet in "incospicuous" places.

This is the story of this Museum: behind the characteristic facade of the house by the canal, "a secret church" was hidden.A wonderful Baroque Catholic church!

Please, do visit this museum and you will discover another "untold face" of the Dutch history!
And what is more: this 'ecclesiastical jewel" lies in the middle of the "Red Light District"!!!

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This is a remenant of the hidden churches that occured in Holland after the catholic church was banned. (actually the only one left to my knowledge)

This church (now a muesem) is on the outskirts of the red light district and is well worth a visit..

It covers two floors over at least two houses and has a full pipe organ, the altar swings out to make the pulpit. It is great. It is still concercrated but only used (so I understand ) for weddings etc.

Also on the lower floors you can view the priests quarters that were hidden.

The whole complex shows the style of living in that era,

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This was the last thing I had time for before going to the airport.

It looks like a house on the outside but is a Catholics church on the inside.

This hidden church 'in the attic' was built during the Reformation, when Catholics were forbidden to hold public services.

Please rate this and my other tips whey you find them useful.

You would never guess there is actually a Church inside the normal looking house in the red light district. Our Lord in the Attic Museum is actually a Rich Merchant's house in the 17th century. During that period, Roman Catholic church was not allowed in Amsterdam by the Protestant. A rich merchant named Jan Hartman bought the canal house and the adjacent house and built a secret altar at the attic of both house. The altar has 3 levels and it is well perserved. It is amazing that the altar is still being used for mass, wedding and concerts right now.

Inside the house, you can also see how a rich merchant lived during the 17th century. The museum also have special exhibitions from time to time.

This hidden (though hardly secret: its too big!) Catholic church, located in a attic of a merchants house close to the current red-light district is a monument to a dutch solution to a dutch problem. The city fathers would not have had to do a lot of investigating to find this place if they had wanted to.

Its very evocative as is the rest of the preserved Merchants house and well worth a visit.

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This is one of several clandestine “secret” churches established after the Calvanist coup or the so-called Alteration in 1578. The Calvanists were a fanatical Protestant movement who roamed from city to city under the nickname geuzen (beggars), mudering priests, nuns & Catholic sympathisers smashing papist idolatry in churches. Catholics were forced to worship in these clandestine churches.

Jan Hartman & his family bought 3 adjacent buildings with his family living on the ground floor of the canal side, he had the loft converted into this secret church. Much of the construction is suspended from the roof. The Baroque alter is seldom used nowdays as it is rather delicate. There is a beautiful organ in the church & its workings can be seen under the gallery floor. There is a room dedicated to the Miracle of Amsterdam which took place on the night of 15 March 1345 at a house on Klaverstreet where the vomit of a man with the sacramental last rites was thrown into the fire & it did not burn. The wafer was kept at the Oude Kerk for safekeeping & then lost only to be rediscovered at the sick mans house.

Today it is still used for special masses, weddings & concerts. There is a tiny room halfway up the stairs which is thought to be the chaplain’s bedroom. I really enjoyed my visit here, well worth a visit & lots to see

Adults Euro 7, Children Euro 1 free with Museumkaart

The Amstelkring Museum is a small, excellent museum located in a well-preserved canal house in the red light district. The lower floors show what the interior of a canal house looked like in the 1600s, with a number of rooms that are furnished with period furniture and art, including a kitchen. The upper floors feature one of Amsterdam's best-preserved clandestine Catholic churches (the other famous one is located in the Begijnhof). The clandestine church has three levels of seating, a pipe organ, and dozens of period paintings.