Westerkerk

Church · Western Canal RingAmsterdam,Netherlands

Amsterdam's tallest church tower at 85 metres, crowned by an imperial crown granted in 1489, over a plain Protestant hall where Rembrandt was buried.

The Westerkerk stands where the canal ring meets the Jordaan, and its tower is the tallest in Amsterdam at 85 metres. On the spire sits a blue and gold imperial crown. Maximilian I gave the city the right to use it in 1489, and Amsterdam has carried it in the coat of arms ever since. Inside, the church is deliberately plain: whitewashed, wide, full of daylight, with the pulpit rather than an altar at the centre of attention. Hendrick de Keyser designed it and died a year into the work; his son Pieter finished it, and it opened in 1631 as the largest Protestant church built anywhere in the young Dutch Republic. Rembrandt was buried here in October 1669, poor, in a rented grave; rented graves were cleared and reused, so the exact spot is gone and the plaque on the north wall is a guess. The tower climb has been shut since the 2023 restoration, so what is left is standing under it when the carillon starts and the bells come down over the water.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Look up at the crown — the blue and gold object on the spire is an imperial crown given to the city in 1489, a century and a half before this church was built to put it on.
The tower climb is closed — the Westertoren has been shut to climbers since the 2023 restoration, so check before counting on it; the carillon plays regardless.
Rembrandt is here, and nowhere in particular — he was buried in a rented grave in 1669, the plot was cleared after twenty years, and a memorial column stands instead of a tomb.

Things to do

1
Wait under the tower for the carillon
Stand on the Prinsengracht bridge just south of the church a few minutes before the hour. The bells start without warning and the sound comes across the water rather than down from the tower, so the whole canal seems to be ringing rather than the building.
2
Find the Homomonument beside the church
Three pink granite triangles set into the pavement of the Westermarkt, one stepping down into the Keizersgracht, the first memorial of its kind anywhere to gay men and women persecuted for it. It is easy to walk over without noticing, which is roughly the intention — one triangle is a step into the water where people leave flowers.