7 Best Sights in Red Light District, Amsterdam

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With its elegant gray-and-white facade and spout gable—the block atop the building that looks like a funnel, which used to signify a warehouse or trade house rather than a residential property—this building appears to be another lovely 17th-century canal house, and on the lower floors it is. But tucked away in the attic is a clandestine place of Catholic worship, a schuilkerk (hidden church), one of the very few to survive. Catholic masses were officially forbidden from 1578, but the Protestant authorities in Amsterdam turned a blind eye, provided the churches were not recognizable as such from the outside. Restored to its 19th-century appearance, the chapel itself is a triumph of Dutch taste, with a magnificent old rose color scheme and marbled wood columns to match, a gorgeous green altar, and the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan (1716) painting by Jacob de Wit presiding over all.

The grandeur continues throughout the house, which was renovated by merchant Jan Hartman between 1661 and 1663. The kitchen and chaplain bedroom remain furnished in the style of the age, and the day room looks as if it were plucked from a Vermeer painting. With its copper chandelier and marble Solomonic columns, it's one of the most impressive 17th-century rooms left in Amsterdam. The new part of the museum, on the other side of the alley, hosts temporary exhibitions.

Amsterdam's oldest building has evolved over many centuries to look as it does today. What began as a wooden chapel in the 13th century was built up to a hall church and then a cross basilica between 1366 and 1566 (and fully restored between 1955 and 2013). Prior to the Reformation, the Oude Kerk was known as "the living room," because peddlers displayed their goods in the church and beggars slept there. It was violently looted during the Reformation and stripped of its altars and images of saints—although the looters did leave the 14th-century paintings still visible on its wooden roof, as well as the Virgin Mary stained-glass windows that had been set in place in 1550. The famed Vater-Müller organ was installed in 1726. Don't miss the carved choir stalls that illustrate proverbs relating to cardinal sins, among other things. Within this open, atmospheric space, there's a gravestone for Rembrandt's first wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh, and also for Kiliaen van Rensselaer, one of the Dutch founders of what is now New York. Outside, embedded in the sidewalk by the door, is a bronze plaque of hand cupping a naked breast; it's one of a series of pieces of art anonymously placed throughout Amsterdam by an artist in the 1990s. Today, the Oude Kerk is as much an exhibition space as a place of worship, hosting top-notch modern art shows. Its carillon is played every Tuesday at 2 and every Saturday at 4—the best place to listen is the bridge in front of the church.

Amsterdam's only surviving defense tower began life around 1487 as the end point of the city wall. The term schreier suggests the Dutch word for wailing and as lore would have it, the "Weeping Tower" was where women came to cry when their sailor husbands left for sea and to cry again when they did not return (there's a commemorative stone from 1569 of a woman and a boat on the Gelderskade side). However, the word schreier actually comes from an Old Dutch term for "sharp," and because the old city wall made a sharp corner here, this is a more accurate derivation for the tower's name. It's also famous as the point from which Henry Hudson set sail to America. A plaque on the building tells you that he sailed on behalf of the Dutch East India Company to find a shorter route to the East Indies. In his failure, he came across Canada's Hudson Bay and later—continuing his unlucky streak—the New York harbor and the Hudson River. He eventually landed at what is now Manhattan and named it New Amsterdam. The attached VOC café has a lovely view and serves jenever, veal croquettes, and other local delights. On the next floor up, there's a nautical shop for modern-day sailors.

The architect A. C. Bleys designed this Catholic church with its large dome, twin steeples, and colorful stained-glass windows as a replacement for all the clandestine churches that operated during the Reformation. After the Oude Kerk and the Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic) chapel, this church, completed in 1887, became the third (and probably final) Sint-Nicolaas church in Amsterdam. Saint Nicholas, the all-purpose patron saint of children, thieves, prostitutes, sailors, and the City of Amsterdam, transforms into Sinterklaas in mid-November, when he is popularly said to arrive from Spain on a steamboat with his helper Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). The eve of his birthday on December 6 is celebrated as a family feast when everyone exchanges presents and poems. In recent years, the Black Pete phenomenon has received a lot of flak, with some claiming that Sinterklaas's sidekick is a slave. There are church tours for groups with a minimum of seven participants; call for reservations on Thursday 10–noon. The church hosts a Gregorian chant vesper service on Sunday at 5, September–June.

This rather touristy strip of hostels, bars, and coffeeshops began life as one of the original dikes along the Amstel. It's where the famous 17th-century poet Joost van den Vondel did business from his hosiery shop at No. 101, and where Mozart's father tried to unload tickets for his son's concerts in the area's upscale bars. It entered a decline in the 17th century when the proprietors decamped for fancier digs on the Canal Ring; sailors (and the businesses that catered to them) started to fill in the gaps. In the 19th century, the street devolved, along with its extension, Nes, into the city's primary debauchery zone. Today, there's an active gay scene here: look out for the rainbow and black-and-blue flags.

Few streets have had a longer or more torrid history than Zeedijk (it means "sea dike," as it sounds), which has been around since Amsterdam began life as a boggy hamlet. In the 15th and 16th centuries, its businesses serviced the lonely, thirsty sailors disembarking from the ships of the East India Company. By the 1970s, though, most of the traffic Zeedijk saw was drug traffic, and tourists were advised to avoid the neighborhood at night because of the junkies and high crime rate. Since its renovation, Zeedijk has become a pleasant street, with plenty of restaurants, pubs, and shops, and it's a very nice place to wander.

There are several interesting sights along the Zeedijk. The entrance of 15th-century Sint Olofskapel (St. Olaf Chapel) sports a sandstone sculpture by Hendrick de Keyser: grains growing out of a supine skeleton with a Latin inscription meaning "Hope for a better life." It's now an events venue. Across the street at No. 1 is one of only two houses with timber facades left in the city. Dating to around 1550, In't Aepjen (In the Monkeys) provided bedding to destitute sailors if they promised to return from their next voyage with a monkey. Café 't Mandje at No. 65 was the first openly gay bar, run by legendary lesbian biker chick Bet van Beeren (1902–67). It reopened in 2008, with much of the original interior restored, complete with the trophy ties Bet snipped off customers. The Chinese community dominates the end of the street, where street signs are in Dutch and Mandarin. There are around 10,000 Chinese in Amsterdam, a 20th-century presence much younger than the Dutch in China (Taiwan came under Dutch control in 1624). One highlight is the Fo Guang Shan He Hua Buddhist temple (No. 118), the largest Buddhist temple in Europe constructed in the traditional style. Chinatown extends into Geldersekade and Nieuwmarkt, and every year there are small (but colorful) Chinese New Year celebrations.