Museum Our Lord In The Attic

Museum Our Lord in the Attic occupies a remarkably preserved seventeenth-century canal house on the Oudezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam's oldest quarter. During the Dutch Golden Age, when Catholic worship was officially forbidden in the city, a wealthy merchant named Jan Hartman had a clandestine church built across the upper floors of his home and two adjoining houses behind it. The result was a fully functioning hidden place of worship, complete with a baroque altar, a pipe organ, and a confessional, all concealed within an ordinary-looking merchant's residence. The church remained in use until 1887, when the nearby Saint Nicholas Church opened and the congregation moved on.

Today the museum preserves both the hidden church and the domestic rooms of the canal house, offering visitors a rare glimpse into the religious and social life of seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Entry includes an audio guide that leads guests through the merchant's parlour, the sacristy, and up into the attic church itself, explaining the history of Catholic worship in the city during the period of clandestine practice.