West Church/Jordaan

Across the canal is the popular neighbourhood of Jordaan.

The origins of Jordaan area can be traced back to the 17th century where it was built for the city's labourers and immigrants. Many of these immigrants originated from France or near, then being the agricultural part of town, was subsequently named Jardin which is French for garden.

There was a very famous fortune teller from this Jordaan area, who went by the name of Aunty Cor and would read people's future in her cards. She always asked to be paid in pawn receipts, so she would not need to identify herself at the bank. One day, Aunty Cor was visited by a man whose wife had been having fits of deliriousness, as if she was possessed. Aunty Cor told him that his wife had refused a pushy merchant’s wares. Aunty Cor cackled at the man and informed him that this merchant was an especially wicked man and he had bewitched the man’s wife.

Aunty Cor threw a powder into the flames of her stove, and the fire rose up. "There he is," she told the man!! The man leaned forward to look into the flames and sure enough he saw a figure in the glow. "Go ahead and give him a good cut across the face, so you’ll recognise him later," Aunty Cor whispered, "He deserves it." The man took his pocket knife and slashed it through the flames. It is said that from then on, no doors were ever opened for the merchant again, for he had a deep, nasty red scar running from his ear to his mouth.

Here we are in front of the Westerkerk, it was one of the first purposely built Protestant churches and remains the largest church in the Netherlands built for Protestants. It was built between 1620 and 1631 in Renaissance style according to designs by architect Hendrick de Keyser, but finished by his son Pieter de Keyser after his father’s passing in 1621.

The tower, called the Westertoren ("Western tower"), is the highest church tower in Amsterdam, at 87 meters. Rembrandt is said to be buried somewhere under a tombstone in the Westerkerk but the exact location is unknown.