Walloon Church, Amsterdam

The Walloon Church (Dutch: Waalse Kerk; French: Église Wallonne) is a Protestant church building in Amsterdam, along the southern stretch of Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal. The building dates to the late 15th century and has been in use as Walloon church since 1586. Every Sunday at 11 a.m. church services are held here in French. The church is also used for concerts and music recordings. It is known for its excellent acoustics. The building has held rijksmonument status since 1970.

The painter Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613-1670) and the scientist Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680) are interred in the church. Elizabeth Timothy (1702-1757), the first female American newspaper editor and publisher, was most likely christened there. The painter Vincent van Gogh visited the church regularly in the 1870s to attend sermons delivered by his uncle Johannes Paulus Stricker.

The church was also known as the Franse Kerk ("French Church"), Walenkerk ("Walloons' Church"), Oude Walenkerk ("Old Walloons' Church"), or Oude Waalse Kerk ("Old Walloon Church").

The Walloon Church was originally the chapel of a Roman Catholic monastery, the Sint-Paulusbroederklooster. The monastery's first chapel was built in 1409 but most likely destroyed during the fire of 1452. In 1493, the monastery received permission to build a new chapel, which was taken into use three years later. Following the 1578 Alteratie (the Protestant Reformation in Amsterdam), the chapel was confiscated by the city government. It was used as a storeroom and for various other purposes until 1586, when it was offered to the Walloon Reformed community of religious refugees, French-speaking Protestants who had fled religious persecution in the Southern Netherlands and France. It was one of a large number of Walloon churches established in the Dutch Republic during this period — at least fifteen in the period 1571-1590 alone.

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