A souvenir of the pilgrims from Amsterdam.

In the Middle Ages, Amsterdam was a popular pilgrimage site thanks to the Miracle of Amsterdam. At the place where the miracle had occurred, the Heilige Stede (“Holy Site”) was built. This chapel served as Amsterdam’s most important shrine until the end of the sixteenth century. After the Alteration in 1578, the chapel was confiscated, then used as a horse stable, and later taken over by Protestants. To suppress its association with its earlier role as a Catholic pilgrimage chapel, they began calling the building the Nieuwezijds Chapel. Eventually, the church was demolished in 1908.

But this did not mean the end of the pilgrimage culture for the people of Amsterdam. In nearby Heiloo it continued, partly openly and partly in secret. There, devotion to Mary at the Runxput persisted after the Reformation, despite the demolition of the ruins of the old chapel by the Reformed authorities in 1637. Repeated prohibition measures issued by the States of Holland failed to curb the flow of pilgrims. Around 1750, the Amsterdammer Jan de Boer complained that the “fanatical Roman Catholics” did not limit their practices to Heiloo, but carried statues of saints and banners in procession already as far as Amsterdam.

Amsterdammers who wished to openly express their faith through processions had to turn to pilgrimage sites across the border, particularly Kevelaer in Germany. Since 1642, this town had been a center of Marian devotion surrounding a miraculous image, the so-called “picture of grace” of Our Lady, Comforter of the Afflicted. Located just 6 kilometers beyond the border, it became a popular destination for Dutch Catholics. In 1926, for instance, a train carrying 384 pilgrims departed from Amsterdam to Kevelaer, led by the pastor of the Posthoorn Church, Julianus Theodorus Lagerwey.

A reminder of this pilgrimage culture can still be seen in a chapel of the Posthoorn Church. Although the altar of the Kevelaer Chapel has disappeared, a wall painting from 1939 remains visible. On the wall, above the silhouette of the vanished altar, Mary of Kevelaer is depicted surrounded by Amsterdam pilgrims. The mural was created on the occasion of Pastor Lagerwey’s 50th priestly jubilee. He is shown on the right of the painting, holding the Posthoorn Church in his hands.

Although the Posthoorn Church is no longer used as a church, this mural still recalls the centuries-old struggle of Amsterdam’s Catholics to preserve traditional processions and pilgrimages.