Amsterdam’s oldest church gets red window, but it is all in the name of art

A major dispute has broken out in Amsterdam about the green light given to the people running the city’s oldest church to replace one chapel window with red glass.

The Oude Kerk, which is situated in the city’s red light district, now hosts exhibitions and its director has replaced one four metre-high chapel window with red glass – a commitment made to Italian artist Giorgio Adreotta Calo, whose show filling the church with red light ended last week.

Amsterdam’s Centrum borough council gave permission for the glass to be replaced even though the building is Amsterdam’s oldest listed building. But following widespread protests from locals, city officials asked the government’s national heritage service Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed for its opinion.

The RCE says in its ruling, which is not binding, that the change has had a ‘strong impact on the way the chapel is experienced’ and that ‘from a cultural historical perspective’ the red glass window would not be the RCE’s choise.

The red window has had an impact on the church’s interior, has changed the way the stained glass windows, floor and white plaster walls are experienced, the RCE says.

Nevertheless, the RCE said that a temporary red window could be considered if done in a way that respects the building and its history. However, it points out, the permit application does not say how long the red window should remain as a ‘temporary’ memory of the exhibition.

Local activists have now launched a legal challenge to the permit and the verdict will be delivered on October 9.

The exhibition organisers point out that the window which has been replaced dates from 1959 and is part of a chapel which was previously not open to the public. In addition, the red glass can easily be replaced by the original glass and stone work, the organisers say.