Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of Orange. If the current Queen Beatrix is in town, this is, techni-
cally, her residence. The Royal Palace reopens to the public in 2009
after a lengthy renovation. Amsterdam is the nominal capital of
the Netherlands, but all governing activity—and the queen's actual
permanent home—are in The Hague (a city 30 miles southwest).
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New Church (Nieuwe Kerk)
The “New” Church is 600 years old (newer than the 700-year-old
“Old” Church in the Red Light District). The sundial above the
entrance once served as the city's offi-
cial timepiece.
The church 's bare, spacious,
well-lit interior (occupied by a new
art exhibit every three months) looks
quite different from the Baroque-
encr usted churches found in the
rest of Europe. In 1566, clear-eyed
Protestant extremists throughout
Holland marched into Catholic
churches (like this once was), lopped
of the heads of holy statues, stripped
gold-leaf angels from the walls, uri-
nated on Virgin Marys, and shattered stained-glass windows in a
wave of anti-Catholic vandalism.
This iconoclasm (icon-breaking) of 1566 started an 80-year
war against Spain and the Habsburgs, leading finally to Dutch
independence in 1648. Catholic churches like this one were con-
verted to the new dominant religion, Calvinist Protestantism
(today's Dutch Reformed Church). From then on, Dutch
churches downplayed the “graven images” and “idols” of ornate
religious art.
From just inside the door, you can get a free look at the 1655
organ (far left end, often played for midday concerts); the stained-
glass window (opposite entrance) showing Count William IV giv-
ing the city its “XXX” coat of arms (symbolism described on page
77); and the window (over entrance) showing the inauguration of
Queen Wilhelmina. She eventually became the steadfast center of
Dutch Resistance during World War II.
This church is where many of the Netherlands' monarchs
are married and all are crowned. In 1980, Queen Beatrix—
Wilhelmina's granddaughter—held her coronation in the New
Church. When Beatrix dies or retires (her mother and grand-
mother both abdicated late in life), her son, Crown Prince Willem-
Alexander, will parade to the center of the church, sit in front of
