Abroad in Amsterdam

April 26

Today we got to see something very cool indeed. We had seen signs pointing the direction to it, but didn’t know what it was: O.L.H. de Solder. I kept reading it as something maybe having to do with soldiers.

Then Larry told us about it the other day. It claims to be the oldest museum in Amsterdam, a 17th century town house with a Catholic church in the attic. “Ons’ Lieve Herr op Solder” translates into English as “Our Lord in the Attic.”

When Joanna and I were going up the steps in the old house to see the hidden church, I expected to see an improvised altar and maybe a priest hole–one of those hiding places where the priest could duck, like they had to do in England.

But not so.

Jan Hartman, a German businessman living in Amsterdam, was part of the underground Catholic community here. Catholic services were forbidden. The churches had been seized in the late 1500s and converted to Protestant uses. Much of the old iconography was removed, and the pulpit and sermon became the focus of services. 

Technically it was illegal to conduct a Catholic service in the Netherlands. But Amsterdam had some of its current character even then. As long as you were discreet (and especially if you were a merchant bringing business into the city), the authorities would look the other way and pretend not to know what was going on. Sort of like rolling joints today.

Hartman bought a townhouse during the 1660s on the canal now known as Oudezijds Voorburgwal. I don’t know exactly what that means. Maybe there was an old city wall there. Or maybe the canal served the role of a wall, as a barrier to keep aggressors out.

Hartman eventually bought three connected townhouses. He had the top three floors of the three houses converted into a church nave. The upper two floors have been partly cut away to form galleries. Iron cross ties hold the two halves of each floor together. 

No photos permitted, but that's all right. You can see good ones online at the museum's website, http://www.opsolder.nl.

People could enter Hartman’s house through a side door in the alley.

Ons’ Lieve Herr served as a parish church for more than 200 years. It has been restored and is believed to look much as it would have done in the late 18th or early 19th century. The altar has baroque cherubs and wooden pillars painted to look like green marble. The altarpiece fills the three-story wall. Much of the interior is a color they call cardinal purple.

There is even a pipe organ, which was installed sometime in the 1800s. 

I don’t think this was all that secret. More likely it’s another example of a basic willingness to live and let live, which pretty much characterizes Amsterdam (and maybe all the Netherlands, but I haven’t seen all the Netherlands).

There is now a Roman Catholic basilica dedicated to St. Nicholas not far from Ons’ Lieve Herr. The basilica opened in 1886, and two years later, the church in the attic became a museum, when a group of concerned citizens bought it to keep the buildings from being demolished. Masses are still celebrated there on occasion.

After Ons’ Lieve Herr, we walked through a couple of alleys looking for a place to eat and stumbled onto Chinatown. We shared an appetizer of duck pancakes—savory duck and vegetables served with mu shu wraps.  Then we split a plate of rice topped with soy chicken, crispy pork, and more duck. I am in Amsterdam, but I had a Tsingtao to go with the food.

After lunch we crossed the street to show our respects to Gun Yum, the lady buddha. The central figure in the temple was Gun Yum of the Thousand Arms.

I didn’t count them. Joanna told me. Each of Gun Yum’s many arms radiating from her back carries a different symbolic object. I don’t remember most of them. There was a disc, maybe lightning and food, and a skull. This is the sacred mother who is the source of all things in life. Reminiscent, then, of Kali, Eve, the Virgin Mary, Hera, and gheir sisters.

We lit incense as we did in Hong Kong, and I said a Hail Mary for good measure.

The Old Church, Oudekerk in Dutch, is not far from there, and it was open. As it turns out, it is no longer an active church, but was sold to a private foundation some years ago for a guilder, before the euro.

There was an exhibition called World Press Photo when we got there. That was OK, but not what I came to see. The floor is covered with tombstones, like all old European churches. Important people wanted you to walk on their graves and paid for the privilege.

A sign said the remains have been removed from the tombs during restoration after the church passed into secular hands. So step where you please.

I remember my first experience with that, more than 15 years ago in London. As an American, I was taught not to step on anybody’s grave. So there I was in Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s, and St. Giles Cripplegate lurching around trying not to step on any poor soul’s resting place.

The Oudekerk nave consists of three long vaulted aisles, with woodwork on the ceilings. All of which I would have captured in an extraordinarily masterful photo composition, except that the battery for my camera ran out. So you’ll just have to take my word for it that my video was going to be a masterpiece. 

Most of the windows are white glass, like those at Utrecht. But a few large stained glass windows remain. One double window depicting the Annunciation and the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth has a mid-16th century date in one of the glass panels, but I don’t know that the window is in fact that old. Another shows burghers in Dutch breeches and hats with plumes. It’s a clearly 17th century theme, but again, I don’t know that the window is that old.

By the way, the waffles here are great. We stopped for a snack on the way back from the Oudekerk. Joanna is not big on sweets. That’s clear. She hangs around with me, right? She does like the Euro style hot chocolate because it isn’t quite as sweet as they make the chocolate back home. 

I had a waffle with vanilla ice cream. That was too sweet for her tooth. She had a plain waffle with the slightly sweetened chocolate, and that was just enough.

I call the photo of the day "Welcome to Amsterdam."

Be well, all.