By Rahul viz
Amsterdam has many historic churches located in the city centre form the core of an important group of large historic buildings. It can be divided into following groups the medieval Gothic churches, 17th and 18th century Renaissance and Classicist churches and finally the 19th century churches built in what are commonly called revival styles. The Oude Kerk (Old Church), originally called Church of St. Nicholas, is the oldest building in Amsterdam.
The Church of Our Lady or Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) was designed as a branch church to the Oude Kerk. However, it was not long before the younger church surpassed its older predecessor. Apart from these two major churches there were many smallish Gothic chapels, some of them belonging to the Amsterdam convents (Engelse Kerk, Waalse Kerk).
The church of St. Nicholas became the Oude Kerk (Old Church); the church of Our Lady became the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) and two chapels, originally devoted to St. Olof or St. Odulphus and the Miracle of Amsterdam were renamed the Oudezijds and Nieuwezijds chapels respectively. These names referred to the locations (the old and the new side) of the buildings, a type of nomenclature more acceptable to the predominantly Protestant city.
At the end of the 18th century the political climate underwent significant changes. Catholics and Protestants were granted equal rights. An important example is the Sint Nicolaaskerk having the neo-Gothic style which was especially associated with revival of Catholicism in the Netherlands. Pugin and Viollet-le-Duc were the champions of this style in England and France respectively, while the Dutch architect Cuypers was of crucial importance to the introduction of neo-Gothic architecture in Amsterdam.
The Jewish community occupied a unique position. Large synagogues were built, but without towers. At that time the official Dutch Reformed churches were built in the style of the Renaissance and named after their respective locations (e.g. the Westerkerk, the Zuiderkerk and the Noorderkerk, located in the west, south and north of the city).
What is so striking about these Amsterdam churches is how large and empty they seem, especially a person visits after viewing the great Gothic cathedrals of France. Although built as Catholic churches, they were stripped of all ornamentation and imagery during the Reformation. They appear as such in many 17th-century Dutch paintings and remain the same today.
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