Sint-Nicolaasbasiliek

A dome facing the station

Step out of Centraal Station, turn left, and the Sint-Nicolaasbasiliek is already in front of you across Prins Hendrikkade. Two towers, a large dome behind them, and a tall front that looks nothing like the gabled brick houses around it. Most people arriving in Amsterdam walk past it with a suitcase and never look up. It is worth stopping.

The church stands on the edge of the old harbour district, and that is no accident. Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, and also the patron saint of Amsterdam. Seamen who came ashore here once had a saint of their own waiting at the water's edge.

A church built to be seen

For a long time, Catholics in Amsterdam could not build anything like this. After the Alteration of 1578, the city government took over the old churches for the Protestant faith, and Catholic worship moved indoors, into houses and hidden churches that looked like ordinary buildings from the street.

The church you see now was built in the nineteenth century, when Catholics could be open about their faith again. Work began in 1884 and it opened in 1887. The architect was Adrianus Bleijs. He drew on neo-Baroque and neo-Renaissance styles, and the result is deliberately grand. After centuries of keeping quiet, this church was meant to be noticed.

It is also a reminder that the old centre did not stop changing in the Golden Age. The station beside it dates from the same decades, and the two buildings arrived in the same part of town within a few years of each other.

What to look for

Start outside, across the road by the water, where you can take in the whole front at once. Notice how the two towers frame the dome, and how much carved detail sits on the facade. The brick and stone are a different palette from the canal houses behind you.

Then look at the setting. Trams, bikes and ferry crowds pass in front of a building made for processions and long services. That contrast is the best thing about standing here.

If you go in, give your eyes a minute to adjust and then look up. Churches of this period were designed so that your gaze rises toward the dome. Look also for the images of Saint Nicholas, which fit the harbour setting.

Behind the church, the old sailors' quarter begins. The Sint Olofskapel is a two-minute walk away, a much older chapel built into a hotel. On the Zeedijk, the wooden house at Zeedijk 1 shows what the street looked like before stone replaced timber. The Chet Baker plaque is nearby too, on the hotel where the trumpeter died in 1988.