Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam

Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam tickets: which one to buy

The church functions as an exhibition hall rather than a parish, and the ticket price depends entirely on what is showing; major exhibitions cost as much as a museum, and between them the entry is cheaper or the church closes for installation. Check what is on before planning a visit, because an empty Nieuwe Kerk is a fine Gothic interior and a full one is a well-curated show. Organ recitals on the 1655 Schonat and Hagerbeer instrument are ticketed separately and are cheap.

The church is on Dam Square beside the Royal Palace, and a combined ticket with the palace is sold at both doors and saves a few euros. Amsterdam city cards include entry. There is a good cafe in the attached building with its own street entrance. Tickets are sold inside the entrance on Dam Square and there is rarely a queue, since most people in the square are heading somewhere else.

Visiting Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam: what to see

Amsterdam outgrew the Oude Kerk in the fourteenth century and the bishop of Utrecht allowed a second parish church; building ran from about 1380 to 1408 and continued in fits afterwards, with a tower begun in the 1560s and abandoned unfinished when the money went to the town hall next door. Fire gutted the church in 1645 and it was rebuilt within the old walls. Since 1578 it has been Protestant, which is why the interior is whitewashed and hung with plain boards, its splendour concentrated in the carved oak pulpit of 1649, the gilded organ case and the black marble tomb of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.

The Netherlands invests its monarchs here rather than crowning them; Willem-Alexander was invested in 2013, and royal weddings are held here too. The choir screen of gilded brass, made in 1650, survived the Protestant stripping of the church because it was considered civic rather than religious property. Poets and admirals are buried under the floor, including Joost van den Vondel, and the unfinished tower base can still be seen from the alley on the north side.

Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam opening hours and the best time to go

Opening hours follow the exhibition programme, typically daily from late morning to evening, with closures of several weeks between shows. Dam Square is among the busiest places in the Netherlands at every hour of the day. The interior is bright and even and photographs well; photography is usually allowed except in exhibitions, where it depends on the lender. Dress is informal.

Allow an hour with an exhibition, twenty minutes without. The Royal Palace next door is worth the combined ticket, and the Oude Kerk in the red-light district, which is the older and stranger building, is fifteen minutes away on foot. The Royal Palace, the war memorial and the department stores on the square make this the busiest few hundred metres in the Netherlands.