The church is open to the public Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm and on Sundays from 1 pm to 5 pm.Oude Kerk – the Old Church – is one of the oldest buildings in the city.The church was ordained in the beginning of the 14th century and initially it was just a wooden chapel. Over the course of the centuries it underwent numerous changes in both exterior and interior and it slowly has become what it looks like now. Please feel free to watch the video to get yourself familiarized with evolution of construction. Also take a moment in front of the church to make some photos for instance, while we are telling you about Oude Kerk. Then we are going to walk around it.The initial Catholic interior which included statues, painting and other lavish decorations, was severely damaged and nearly destroyed during Iconoclasm – period in 16th century when Protestants were destroying Catholic churches. So nowadays it is rather modest Protestant church. Many notable citizens of Amsterdam were buried in this church – around 10 thousand people under 2,5 thousand tombstones. Among them is Saskia van Uylenburgh wife of the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. Every year on March 9th a so called sun-breakfast takes place at Oude Kerk – that is when around 9am the sun illuminates the grave of Saskia. Nowadays the Old Church hosts various social events, such as concerts, exhibits and so on.
Photo Amsterdam Oude Kerk 2008 by Andreas Praefcke is licensed under CC BY 3.0