MUSEUM ONS’ LIEVE HEER OP SOLDER

Description

Essentials about the Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder in brief

The Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Dear Lord in the Attic) is housed in one of Amsterdam’s most unusual buildings. From the outside, the building looks like an ordinary canal house from the 17th century. Inside, however, it houses a large Catholic church. It is one of the few remaining so-called “Schuilkerken” (“hidden churches” or “slip churches”) in Holland.

The history of the Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder

The term “Schuilkerk” is used in the Netherlands to describe churches that are not directly recognizable as places of worship from the outside. This form of church building was practiced during the period of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces in the 17th and 18th centuries, mainly by Catholics and smaller Protestant churches. The Netherlands was for the most part Calvinist during that period. Other religious groups were tolerated, but were not allowed to appear openly.

Despite a plain facade, some of the hidden churches were richly decorated on the inside – such as the house of Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder. Han Hartmann, an entrepreneur who had become rich through the linen trade, acquired two adjacent buildings in 1630, in addition to a residential house. To enable him and other Catholics to go to church, Hartmann decided to combine the attics of the three buildings between 1661 and 1663. In the spacious common room he set up a house church for Roman Catholics, where services were held regularly. It was not until masses were celebrated in the neighboring St. Nicholas Church that house churches became superfluous and the building became a museum in 1888. This makes Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder the second oldest museum in Amsterdam after the Rijksmuseum.

The rooms of the house have been reconstructed to reflect Hartmann’s time. For example, you can see a kitchen, a beer parlor and a confession corner. In the case of the church, on the other hand, which extends over two floors, the decision was made to leave it in its original state.