Page 37 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2016 - Amsterdam

Oude Kerk ❮❮ 35

Maria Kapel
Plan of Oude Kerk 7
7 The most stunning THE ICONOCLASM
3 stained glass is in the OF 1566
three windows of the In the 1566 Iconoclasm,
0
Lady Chapel. All date or Beeldenstorm –
9 from the 16th century; precursor to the
5 Alteration of 1578 (see
8 two show scenes from
the Virgin’s life, above p25) when the city
6 the customary picture became Protestant –
4 of the family who the Calvinists looted
Catholic churches and
donated the window. destroyed their
treasures, among them
the Oude Kerk’s
pictures, altars and
statues. Only the ceiling
paintings and stained
glass were spared, as
they were out of reach.
The Calvinists also
disapproved of the
beggars and pedlars
who gathered in the
church, and threw them
out, ending its role as a
city meeting place.
Saskia’s Grave
8
Among the great
and the good buried here
is Saskia van Uylenburgh,
Rembrandt’s first wife,
who died in 1642. Her
grave is number 29K in
the Weitkopers Kapel.
NEED TO KNOW
MAP P2 • Oudekerksplein 23
• 020 625 8284 • www.oudekerk.nl
Open 10am–6pm Mon–Sat, 1–5:30pm
Sun. Closed 1 Jan, 25 Dec, 27 Apr
Admission: €7.50; students €5 (separate
charge for exhibitions)
Guided tours by appointment; Decorated Pillars
www.westertorenamsterdam.nl. 9
Pre-1578 relics, these pillars
• For food and people watching, (above) once supported niches for
head for Nieuwmarkt; In de Waag statues of the Apostles destroyed in
(Nieuwmarkt 4) is recommended. the Icono clasm, and were painted to
• Go to the Dutch Reformed Church look like brocade, since the real thing
service at 11am Sunday, or a concert was unsuited to the church’s humidity.
or contemporary art exhibition. Misericords
• Don’t miss the votive ships hanging 0
The 15th-century misericords
from the choir ceiling. helped chor isters take the weight off
their feet. Their charming carvings
illustrate trad itional Dutch proverbs.

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