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The entrance appears to be just another building on old Amsterdam's streets. (In fact, this street was a canal long since filled in). But the discreet bike sign suggests something lays behind.
The stone over the entrance depicts St. Ursula, patron of the Amsterdam Beguines.
The doorway (restored in 1907) leads through this Gothic-ribbed passageway nto Amsterdam’s only remaining medieval courtyard. The rest of the city has risen since and this area is about 3 feet lower. Through here, modern tourists begin their Beguine experience
Amsterdam's streets sometimes seem to be little more than paved strips edging canals, occasionally interrupted by large plazas. However, guidebooks directed us to this pleasant courtyard bristling with Catholic history in Protestant Amsterdam. It’s a Béguinage (Dutch: Begijnof) -- a cluster of small homes used by lay sisterhoods who each had their small units rather than living in a large convent under professed vows. While what we see here is mostly form the 17th and 18th centuries, Béguinages go back as least as far as the 13th century when wars reduced the number of men and women banded together for economic survival and to do charitable works.
Amsterdam’s Begijnof expanded in the 15th century to enclose the present courtyard after a canal was filled in. Huge fires in 1421 and 1452 destroyed much of Amsterdam and the total complex. Amsterdam went Protestant but since this entire complex was Catholic-owned, it was allowed to survive: a Catholic island for 2 centuries. The last Beguine died in 1971 and the homes were restored from 1980-1987. Today a foundation rents out the homes – to 93 women.edit
Let’s take a look at a three of the buildings in the complex. Here is one of only two completely wooden houses left in the center of Amsterdam (although 18 of the 47 townhouses in this courtyard have a Gothic wood skeleton). Dating from around 1470, it’s called Houten Huys.
It's open to visitors, attended by a volunteer who seems to resemble a US-style nun.
Of course, the lay sisters would have their church. This Gothic structure served them (and apparently survived the great fires) since 1419. But in 1607, Amsterdam confiscated it and gave it to the English Protestant community. This drove the Beguines in 1671 to task architect Philip Vingboons to create a chapel behind two adjacent building fronts …
…so that we have a Catholic chapel which looks from the outside like just two townhouses. (Amsterdam elders demanded that the building not look like a Catholic church from the outside). (In other parts of Amsterdam, Catholics created hidden chapels within buildings. Anne Frank was not the first to go into hiding because of religious identity.)
The chapel is dedicated to the complex's two patron saints: Ursula and John.
Several icons are displayed and mapped so you don't miss them.
The stain glass (here the Resurrection) appear to be from the 1950s.
The carved pulpit is exceptional -- and exceptionally low in this low ceilinged space.
St. Peter is here with the cock, about to crow as he denies he knows Jesus in Luke 22.
This painting of the Assumption holds the center above the main altar.
All of this is behind an entrance not extraordinary by this courtyard's standards.
Thanks for joining us. See the rest of of our Amsterdam pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmitt.dick/Amsterdam#slideshow . Or visit our travel pages at: http://www. dickschmitt.com/travels.htm .
