Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
€10, good audioguide-€4.50, Mon-Fri 10:00-17:00, Sat-Sun
11:00-17:00, pleasant restaurant, next to Begijnhof at Kalverstraat 92, tel. 020/523-1822,
www.ahm.nl
. This museum is a fine place to buy the Museumkaart, which you can then use
Although Amsterdam has long been known for its tolerant attitudes, 16th-century politics
forced Dutch Catholics to worship discreetly. At this museum near Central Station, you'll
find a fascinating, hidden Catholic church filling the attic of three 17th-century merchants'
houses.
Fortwo centuries (1578-1795),Catholicism in Amsterdam was illegal but tolerated (like
pot in the 1970s). When hardline Protestants took power in 1578, Catholic churches were
vandalized and shut down, priests and monks rounded up and kicked out of town, and Cath-
olic kids razzed on their way to school. The city's Catholics were forbidden to worship
openly, so they gathered secretly to say Mass in homes and offices. In 1663, a wealthy mer-
chant built Our Lord in the Attic (Museum Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder), one of a handful of
places in Amsterdam that served as a secret parish church until Catholics were once again
allowed to worship in public.
This unique church—embedded within a townhouse in the middle of the Red Light Dis-
trict—comes with a little bonus: a rare glimpse inside a historic Amsterdam home straight
out of a Vermeer painting. Don't miss the silver collection and other exhibits of daily life
from 300 years ago.
Cost and Hours:
€8, includes audioguide, Mon-Sat 10:00-17:00, Sun and holidays
13:00-17:00, no photos, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 40, tel. 020/624-6604,
www.opsolder.nl
.
Europe's most popular ladies of the night tease and tempt here, as they have for centuries,
in several hundred display-case windows around Oudezijds Achterburgwal and Oudezijds
Voorburgwal, surrounding the Old Church (Oude Kerk, described later). Drunks and drug-
gies make the streets uncomfortable late at night after the gawking tour groups leave (about
22:30), but it's a fascinating walk earlier in the evening.
The neighborhood, one of Amsterdam's oldest, has hosted prostitutes since 1200. Pros-
titution is entirely legal here, and the prostitutes are generally entrepreneurs, renting space
and running their own businesses, as well as filling out tax returns and even paying union
dues. Popular prostitutes net about €500 a day (for what's called “S&F” in its abbreviated,
printable form, charging €30-50 per customer).
