Our Dear Lord in the Attic, a unique Catholic church hidden in the upper floors of a merchant’s home in what is now Amsterdam’s Red Light District, has been added to the official European cultural heritage list.
Known in Dutch as Ons Lieve Heer op Solder, the church was able to continue serving a 500-member congregation in militantly-Protestant 17th-century Amsterdam. Despite Catholic practice being banned, authorities turned a blind eye as long as it stayed out of sight.
The EU cultural heritage listing was started in 2013, selecting sites for their “symbolic value, the role they have played in European history and the activities they offer.” There are currently 67 locations listed.
The commission’s statement for the Our Dear Lord in the Attic states that “Freedom of thought, conscience and religion are central to the European idea of rule of law…. Europe has a long history of religious strife, to which the many examples of hidden places of worship attest.”
Image: Shadowgate/Wikimedia Commons
