ST. NIKOLAAS' CHURCH, AMSTERDAM

The Netherlands

The Sint Nikolaaskerk (Church of St. Nicholas) is one of the largest churches in Amsterdam.

It stands close to the Centraal Station and is, strictly speaking, called St. Nicholas inside the Walls as it stands just within the ancient city wall of Amsterdam.

It was designed by Adrianus Bleijs in the early 1880s. At that time the prohibition on non-Protestant worship had just been lifted and the Catholics of Amsterdam, having spent the last two centuries worshipping in secret in Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, took the opportunity to deliberately build a massive, elaborate and hard not to see church slap bang in the centre of Amsterdam.

The church is an odd mix of styles with a Baroque Dome, neo-classical towers and neo-renaissance main body. The church was finished by 1886 and opened late that year. Two years later the old “Church in the Attic” was opened to the public as a Museum.

Photo - Andrew J. Müller

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2018