"De Wallen" at Amsterdam PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ber van de Rijdt   
A peculiar contrast between the 'walletjes' and the church.

The city ofAmsterdam started a crusade against the operators of our Red Light District that most tourists know as the 'walletjes'. Al guides are inevitably asked - very casually - and ususally within 5 minutes, "when do we get to the Red Light District." Only Chinese tourists often appear to prefer a visit to a diamond cutter.

Wild

this is not so strange because nowhere else anything like it is found. The somewhat rancid, dingy, daring bars and brothels of the 'wallen'. Especially the undisciplined wild world that can be found in the area around the Old Church in Amsterdam. Right opposite the Church entrance with next to it the baptismal font, scarcely clad women are luring customers, standing in their windows with the purple light behind. Black light strip lights create an eerie ghostlike - or angelic? -  effect. Such a contrast between different cultures, such good natured neighbors, there on the cozy square. This happens only in tolerant Amsterdam. Naughtiness versus piety, saints versus whores...

The Old Church

The Old Church is in the oldest part of Amsterdam and dates from the 13th century. It is ravaged by modifications, rebuilding and wanton destruction but what remains is still a rare specimen of a - for Holland rare - Hallchurch; all the naves are of the same height. The houses that were built against it during the 17th and 18th century are still there. From most other churches they were removed because they often were sources of fire that endangered the main building

Merchants were busy, the poor found asylum. Today there are still tourists that find their way to the church but the whores divert too much attention so that few see the full beauty of the church; the stained glass windows, the refined paintings on the ceiling on a gilded background, a beautiful organ and gracious woodcarvings.

The Red Light

And then these hookers. In a nation of Great Seafarers it is to be expected that houses of pleasure were built along the wharfs and quais where the ships docked. In Amsterdam the wards ended at the main Damsquare. (A dam against the sea).
But the red light was NOT invented in Amsterdam. That honor falls to Venice. The local government worried about the sinister doings under the many local bridges. When most young women were given in marriage to successful rich older merchants a shortage of weddeable girls was the consequence. As a result many young man became more than superficially interested in each other. So red lights were hung under these bridges and a special quarter of town was reserved were women had the right to show their voluptuous beauty behind the windows without being arrested or fined. This neighborhood was also marked with red lanterns. All in an effort to fight sodomy.