I went to Amsterdam’s Red Light District not for the night life, but to discover a hidden church.
The Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder is a 17th century canal home that looks ordinary from the outside. Inside, though, it holds a secret: a full Catholic church across its upper floors.
It was built after the Reformation, a period when Catholic worship was restricted.
Although Amsterdam is know for its tolerance, back in the 16th and 17th centuries, there was one group kept in the closest — Catholics.
So the citizens adapted, quietly building behind the facades of everyday Amsterdam life to secretly practice their faith. A classic case of don’t ask, don’t tell.
The church contains living quarters, two kitchens, labyrinthian staircases, and a complete church.
With an audio guide, you’ll get a history lesson about Amsterdam and walk through the rooms of this 400 year old house.
>>> Click here to pre-book a ticket
Mini History of Our Lord in the Attic
The story of the museum starts with the wealthy merchant Jan Hartman. He bought the property and extended the exiting canal house to incorporate two rear houses.
On the ground floor and basement, he built a shop and storage room. He added a lavish reception room on the first floor to show off his status and received guests.
He then linked the third floor of the main house with the top floors of the other two to create a giant attic.
Hartman was Catholic and his son was training for the priesthood. The problem?
This was the era of the Reformation and Catholics were banned from practicing their religion in public. The city council compromised and decided to permit Catholic worship as long as the church didn’t look like other churches and wan’t accessible from public roads.
In keeping with this edict, Hartman created a church inside his house. For over 200 years, citizens worshipped in his church, reachable only from a tiny door on a side alley.
In 1887, a group of Catholics bought the property to save it from demolition. The next year, it was opened as a museum.
Guide To Our Lord in the Attic: What To See
Living Quarters
Besides the church itself, the museum lets you see how the house actually functioned as a home, which is half the point.
You move through a sequence of 17th century living spaces: the merchant’s rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, and storage areas. They’re furnished to show daily life in a canal house.
The Front Room and Salon have opulent Golden Age artwork and furnishings. (The priest’s hiding place looks positively spartan by comparison.)
Narrow staircases, low ceilings, and original woodwork make the building feel intimate and slightly precarious. Exactly as it would have been.
There are also religious objects used discreetly during the period of Catholic restriction.
You’ll find altarpieces, vestments, and devotional items—along with historic documents and models explaining how hidden churches operated in Protestant Amsterdam.
What makes it compelling is the contrast: ordinary domestic rooms below, an extraordinary sacred space above.
The Church
Today’s visitors follow the same route parishioners once took, moving through narrow corridors and climbing steep staircases toward the top of the house.
The upper floors of the house were opened up to create a double height worship space tucked under the roof.
The main sanctuary sits on the upper level, with rows of wooden pews facing a richly decorated Baroque altar.
Above and behind it is a gallery level, where additional worshippers could sit, connected by narrow staircases.
The decoration is unexpectedly lavish for a hidden church: gilded altarpieces, painted panels, carved woodwork, chandeliers, and a small organ loft.
The organ stands opposite the high altar. Hendrik Meyer custom built it in 1794 for use in the clandestine church. And it’s still regularly played today.
The tall altarpiece by Jacob de Wit depicts the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. Above it, a stucco figure of God and the Holy Spirit, shown as a dove, completes the composition.
Windows are carefully positioned to bring in light without advertising the church’s presence from the street.
The effect is intimate rather than monumental—compressed, vertical, and quietly theatrical. It’s made all the more powerful by the knowledge that it was never meant to be seen from the outside.
Practical Visiting Tips
Address: Oudezijds Voorburgwal 38, 1012 GD Amsterdam.
The museum entrance takes you into the gift shop and ticket booth area. The house and church are connected to it by an underground passage.
Hours: Open daily from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. But opening on Sunday at 1:00 pm. Mass is held on the first Sunday of each month at 11:00 am.
Tickets:
Adults: €1 6.95, Children 5–17: € 7.50, Under 4 free.
With the audio guide, follow the numbers and scan the bar code to get the information.
Accessibility:
The museum has many narrow staircases. One staircase is more of a ladder than a stairway.
The museum isn’t fully wheelchair accessible because of its historic design. But the museum has a CoVisit program that allows visitors with limited mobility to experience the church on a virtual tour.
Via a computer screen, you can connect to the phone of a travel companion able to climb the stairs and walk around.
Maintaining contact through the screen, they can accompany their friend or relative around the museum, listening, seeing, speaking, and visiting the museum together.
Is Our Lord in the Attic Worth Visiting?
History buffs and those who love religious history will definitely be intrigued. As will those who like to explore hidden architecture or secret places of worship.
There is some visual richness and good storytelling. But some may just think, “oh, cool, it’s a church in a Dutch house.”
If you are short on time in Amsterdam, I would probably skip it.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my guide to Our Lord in the Attic. You may find these other Amsterdam guides useful:
- One day in Amsterdam itinerary
- 2 days in Amsterdam itinerary
- Guide to the Anne Frank House
- Guide to the Rijksmuseum
- Guide to MOCO Amsterdam
- Guide to the Stedelijk Museum
- Guide to Rembrandt House
- Guide to the Van Gogh Museum
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