Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [30]
There is an undertow to the district that’s not particularly pleasant, and with the added delights of the drug addicts that hang around during the day you might not want to spend any longer here than is necessary. And don’t even think about taking a picture of a “window brothel” unless you’re prepared for some major grief from the camera-shy prostitutes, or their pimps. However, it’s certainly an interesting district to visit, and it does contain two prime attractions, the medieval Oude Kerk and the clandestine Amstelkring Catholic church.
The Old Centre | The Red Light District |
Warmoesstraat
Soliciting hasn’t always been the principal activity on sleazy Warmoesstraat. It was once one of the city’s most fashionable streets, home to Holland’s foremost poet, Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679), who ran his hosiery business from no. 110 in between writing and hobnobbing with the Amsterdam elite. Van den Vondel was a kind of Dutch Shakespeare; his Gijsbrecht van Amstel, a celebration of Amsterdam during its Golden Age, is one of the classics of Dutch literature, and he wrote regular, if ponderous, official verses, including well over a thousand lines on the inauguration of the town hall. Vondel had more than his share of hard luck too; his son frittered away the modest family fortune and he lived out his last few years as doorkeeper of the pawnshop on Oudezijds Voorburgwal known as “Ome Jan” (see "Oudezijds Voorburgwal"), dying of hypothermia at what was then the remarkable age of 92. Witty to the end, his own suggested epitaph ran: “Here lies Vondel, your grief withhold, for he hath suffered death from cold”. His name lives on most prominently in the city’s largest park, the Vondelpark, which was named after him.
A Red Light District canal
The Old Centre | The Red Light District |
The Prostitution Information Centre
Just off Warmoesstraat on Oude Kerkplein, a small bronze statue of a woman waiting in a window highlights the main business around here, and a number of brothels ring the square, near which is the Prostitution Information Centre, at Enge Kerksteeg 3, right by the Oude Kerk (Wed & Fri 6–8pm, Sat noon–7pm; 020/420 7328, www.pic-amsterdam.com). This is a legally recognized stichting or charitable foundation that was set up in 1994 by an ex-prostitute, Mariska Majoor, to provide prostitutes, their clients and visitors with clear, dispassionate information about prostitution. Its shop, “Wallenwinkel”, sells books and pamphlets, and souvenirs of the Red Light District – postcards, fridge magnets, T-shirts and the like – and it runs hour-long tours of the Red Light District for €12.50 a person (Sat at 5pm). All in all, it does a decent job of ridding prostitution of its seedy mystique.
The Old Centre | The Red Light District |
The Oude Kerk
Bang in the middle of the Red Light District is Amsterdam’s most appealing church, the Oude Kerk (Mon–Sat 11am–5pm, Sun 1–5pm; €5; www.oudekerk.nl), an attractive Gothic structure with high-pitched gables and finely worked lancet windows. There’s been a church on this site since the middle of the thirteenth century, but most of the present building dates from a century later, funded by the pilgrims who came here in their hundreds following a widely publicized miracle. The story goes that, in 1345, a dying man regurgitated the Host he had received here at Communion, and when it was thrown on the fire afterwards, it did not burn. The unburnable Host was placed in a chest and installed in a long-lost chapel somewhere off Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, before finally being transferred to the Oude Kerk a few years later. It disappeared during the Reformation, but to this day thousands of the faithful still come to take part in the annual Stille Omgang, a silent nocturnal procession terminating at the Oude Kerk and held in mid-March. The church is also regularly used for art displays and concerts.
The Protestants cleared