One church, several denominations: the story of the neo-Gothic canal church Our Dear Lady.
One church, one architectural history, several denominations: the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Kerk (Our Dear Lady Church) currently serves as the house of worship for three different parishes - Syrian Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Surinamese Catholic. Both the church's history and its denominations past and present have christened it with various names: the Syrian Orthodox call it the Mother of God Church; the Catholics, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church; while the name Redemptorist Church is a relic of its founders and the first denomination that worshipped there.
The Redemptorists are an order founded near Naples in the mid-18th century, and include a number of prominent adherents; the most famous of the Dutch Redemptorists was Peerke Donders, a missionary who traveled to Suriname just after the abolition of slavery to minister to Africans, Native Americans and lepers in the capital Paramaribo. Donders was later beatified; a museum to his life and works now stands in his home city of Tilburg, inside a replica of his birth house.
In 1850, the Redemptorists founded the Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk as a canal-side cloister, furnished with a chapel for church services. When the cloiser chapel proved too small, a provisional wooden church was erected beside it; this was soon supplanted with the present-day church, now a national monument. The Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk is considered the pièce de résistance of Theo Molkenboer, a prolific church architect who is credited with some 70 churches in the course of his career. Neo-Gothic architecture was much in fashion in the late-19th-century Netherlands, and the church, completed in 1854, is typical of its earliest phase, dubbed "plasterers' Gothic" or "William II Gothic".
Churches of this period imitated the French Gothic in appearance, but not, however, in construction; while on the surface, the Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk has all the trademarks of a French Gothic cathedral (save for the towers), its Gothic details are in fact just plastered facsimiles. Later critics and architects (such as P.J.H. Cuypers, the architect of Amsterdam Central Station) discounted these churches as counterfeits, and claimed that the outward appearance of Gothic church architecture proceeded from its fundamental construction - and could not simply be emulated with plasterwork.
Nevertheless, the Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk is still hailed as an architectural landmark; despite the pejorative "plasterers' Gothic" label, some even consider it the first authentic neo-Gothic church in the Netherlands. Whatever its architectural merit, it has served its denominations well over time: in 2004, the church celebrated its 150th anniversary; six years later, in 2010, the Syrian Orthodox community fêted its 25th anniversary at the church.
The Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk is open to the public from Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, a half-hour before the Eucharist.
Source: Gemeente Amsterdam
Onze Lieve Vrouwe Kerk (Our Dear Lady Church)
Keizersgracht 218-220
1016 DZ Amsterdam
The Redemptorists are an order founded near Naples in the mid-18th century, and include a number of prominent adherents; the most famous of the Dutch Redemptorists was Peerke Donders, a missionary who traveled to Suriname just after the abolition of slavery to minister to Africans, Native Americans and lepers in the capital Paramaribo. Donders was later beatified; a museum to his life and works now stands in his home city of Tilburg, inside a replica of his birth house.
In 1850, the Redemptorists founded the Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk as a canal-side cloister, furnished with a chapel for church services. When the cloiser chapel proved too small, a provisional wooden church was erected beside it; this was soon supplanted with the present-day church, now a national monument. The Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk is considered the pièce de résistance of Theo Molkenboer, a prolific church architect who is credited with some 70 churches in the course of his career. Neo-Gothic architecture was much in fashion in the late-19th-century Netherlands, and the church, completed in 1854, is typical of its earliest phase, dubbed "plasterers' Gothic" or "William II Gothic".
Churches of this period imitated the French Gothic in appearance, but not, however, in construction; while on the surface, the Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk has all the trademarks of a French Gothic cathedral (save for the towers), its Gothic details are in fact just plastered facsimiles. Later critics and architects (such as P.J.H. Cuypers, the architect of Amsterdam Central Station) discounted these churches as counterfeits, and claimed that the outward appearance of Gothic church architecture proceeded from its fundamental construction - and could not simply be emulated with plasterwork.
Nevertheless, the Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk is still hailed as an architectural landmark; despite the pejorative "plasterers' Gothic" label, some even consider it the first authentic neo-Gothic church in the Netherlands. Whatever its architectural merit, it has served its denominations well over time: in 2004, the church celebrated its 150th anniversary; six years later, in 2010, the Syrian Orthodox community fêted its 25th anniversary at the church.
The Onze Lieve Vrouw Kerk is open to the public from Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, a half-hour before the Eucharist.
Source: Gemeente Amsterdam
Onze Lieve Vrouwe Kerk (Our Dear Lady Church)
Keizersgracht 218-220
1016 DZ Amsterdam
- Location: Grachtengordel West (Canal District West), Amsterdam Centrum/Center
- Directions: Take bus 170, 172, 174, 272, 352, 354 or 358 to the Westermarkt stop; follow Radhuisstraat eastward and make the first right onto Keizersgracht.Otherwise, take tram 1, 2, 5, 13, 14 or 17 to the Dam (Radhuisstraatl) stop. Continue west on Radhuisstraat, then turn left on the Keizersgracht (the third canal westward).
