Église Moïse-et-Aaron

The Moses and Aaron Church (Mozes en Aäronkerk, ˌmoːzəs ɛn aːˈʔaːrəŋkɛr(ə)k), in the Waterlooplein neighborhood of Amsterdam, is officially the Roman Catholic Church of St. Anthony of Padua (Sint-Anthoniuskerk). Originally a clandestine church, it was operated by Franciscan priests at a house on Jodenbreestraat ["Jewish Broad Street"], where the wall tablets of Moses and Aaron hung on the wall. In 1970, the present church was designated as a Cultural Heritage Monument (Rijksmonument) of the Netherlands. In the first centuries after the Reformation, the public display of Roman Catholic services and accessories was not tolerated – officially forbidden in 1660 – in Amsterdam. So in 1641 the Franciscans went to the Joodenbuurt ["Jewish Quarter"], then at the outskirts of the east side of Amsterdam, and opened a house church, the second of its kind in the city, at a house called the "Moyses" (Moses), at the back of the present church. In 1682, the house was joined by the neighboring house "Aäron" (Aaron) with the purchase by Dr. Johannes de Vroom, a physician from Breda, as well as by the house behind it on the Houtgracht ["Wood Canal"]. Subsequently, also in 1682, a neighboring property owned by David Torres was bought by an intermediary. Named after the brothers from the Old Testament, the twin houses proved to be better known than their hidden church, Sint-Anthoniuskerk, which had been dedicated to the church's patron saint, St. Anthony of Padua. In 1690, Johannes de Vroom, brother of the priest, consolidated all the four properties into a single block. In the meantime, the expansion of the church had already begun, before the sale was made and before permission was obtained from the City Council. The entrance was moved from Jodenbreestraat to the Houtgracht. The church was decorated inside and outside, including a new facade, in 1759. But it remained hidden under the gables of the two houses until the early 19th Century, when the prohibitions against the Catholic Church were finally lifted.