In 1345, a chapel was built in honour of the Miracle of Amsterdam in the Kalverstraat: the Heilige Stede (Holy Place). The chapel stood between the Kalverstraat and the Rokin for almost 600 years, until the church was demolished on 10 July 1908.

The remains of the Heilige Stede had to be preserved at all costs. Shortly after the demolition, building fragments were bought by the Amstelkring (now Our Lord in the Attic Museum). In the museum, the debris of the demolished holy place was cherished and elevated to Catholic heritage.

Unfortunately, not all fragments ended up so well. Between July and October 1908, more than 500 building fragments were purchased and transported to the Lapidarium of the Rijksmuseum. From this location, many pieces have been moved several times to other depots and municipal storages. The centuries-old fragments were generally quite poorly handled and protected. Jan Sterck (1859-1941), historian and co-founder of Museum Amstelkring, wrote in a testimony: 'All those important specimens of old sculpture were loaded into wagons and thrown on top of each other by municipal workers.'

From the second half of the 20th century, many fragments were lost. Only a few remained at a safe place in a museum or depot. Most of the pieces that were stored in the Amsterdam Municipal Depot started to wander. Some reappeared in the sixties in the workshops of antique dealers who turned them into wall consoles and side tables. Other building fragments disappeared literally underground as dike reinforcement or were dumped en masse into public allotments.

The story of the building fragments of the Heilige Stede can therefore be called a tragedy in three acts: the demolition, the wandering and the loss.