Nieuwzijds Kapel
Nieuwzijds Kapel stands in Amsterdam on the former Heilige Stede site, beside shops and the old pilgrimage route. The present church took shape between 1908 and 1912 in an eclectic design by C. B. Posthumus Meyjes. A national monument since 2001, the building houses Amsterdam Dungeon, following earlier use as a mosque and party centre.
The earlier chapel commemorated the Miracle of Amsterdam, associated with a consecrated host that survived a fireplace. Church authorities recognised the miracle, and Pope Clement IV declared the place holy in 1378. Pilgrims arrived from across Europe seeking cures or penance, while fires in 1421 and 1452 prompted larger rebuildings. The original interior disappeared during the iconoclasm of 1566, including the fireplace and the host’s monstrance.
The old chapel closed in 1890, then demolition in 1908 made way for the smaller Protestant church. Hundreds of tombstones from the late sixteenth through nineteenth centuries once lay beneath its floor. Fragments appear nearby in the Miracle Column, built in 1988, while thousands join the annual silent Stille Omgang.
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