Our Lord in the Attic

After the Reformation, Amsterdam's Catholics could worship, but not in public. The merchant Jan Hartman bought this canal house in 1661 and two years later fitted a complete church, with altar, organ and galleries, into its three joined attics; it was used until 1887.

The visit starts in the 17th-century rooms, with the kitchen, the parlour and a cupboard bed, then climbs narrow stairs to the church, which is surprisingly large. Along the way you pass the confessional and the chaplain's room.