SOME REMARKS about the Oudekerksplein and the Oude Kerk: Somewhere before 1250.. the Oude Kerk in the Oudebinnenstad of Oud Amsterdam, the later St NICHOLAS Church, came about, as a tiny, wooden chapel, somewhere before 1250. So she is of the 13th century, and of the times when the City of Amsterdam had yet to be born (1275), that city that appeared out of nothing, in the unclear mist of time. The outside of the present church heritage shows an architecture that was finisished in the so called Golden Age, say around 1600. So less on the outside, but surely, especiaially inside the church and also in the Tower you can really still sense and hear.. the actual Amsterdam Middle Ages. And... that begraafplaats (Cemetery) was not cleared at all! The former churchyard, that cemetery, indeed disappeared from the Amsterdam Eyes; in fact what was outside (that Yard) is now inside the church. To prove this... all Amsterdammers ought to go inside this most beautiful of our City sights more often. Then they will (re-) discover the breathtaking space, with the wooden vault (!) and the complete, intact cemetery of 2500 numbered graves with 35 generations (!!) of Amsterdam & European Society, that are more alive (!!!) than they realise. For now, just look at that unique website (only 15 years young): gravenopinternet.nl - where you can meet with your own forefathers and they actually also talk to you (!!!!). BUT I ADD... You can also re-read the UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS of BEING by Milan Kundera, 1983. In that remarkable book the two lovers, Franz and Sabina, enter the Oude Kerk... And they then discover and discuss Time, and what I partly illustrated above. But they also think about what happened in these vehement days, due to the visit of our Iconoclasts - during the Beeldenstorm Which, by the way, never ceased in this country, since August 1566... (psycologically).
Posted on: Sun, 02 Mar 2014 13:05:48 +0000
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