Most catholic churches in the north have been built after 1853, during the catholic emancipation, which resulted in a lot of neo-gothic/ neo-baroque churches, a style that I don't particulary care for. Before that, catholics were allowed to practise their religion, as long as it wouldn't be too obvious, which resulted in for example this church: Our Lord on the Attic:
Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. A church in a canal house in Amsterdam.
At the time there was quite some criticism on the 'catholic' entry of Amsterdam as the central station resembled a catholic building too, or so some protestants at the time thought, as does the Rijksmuseum (both buildings designed by the catholic Pierre Cuypers). Quite fitting though, as Amsterdam always had a large catholic community, the largest religion of the city (as the protestants were always devided in reformed/lutheran/baptist/Dutch reformed etc.).
At the moment five different parishes use the basilica, but the busiest mass is usually the one in Spanish, due to the Latin American expat community probably.
------
Some news items from the Dutch media about the inauguration:
----
Choreographer Hans van Manen will direct the choreography that two dancers will perform on a panton in the IJ during the festivities there after the inhauguration. The dancers will be selected from the national ballet, they will dance on music by Eric Satie.
The national Opera will perform on the square of the Eye film institute. They will play L’Amour des Trois Oranges by Sergej Prokofjev. The opera is about a prince who becomes a king, so very fitting.
Gratis Nieuws - Nederlands Dagblad
Two hundred, mostly traditional, vessels will participate during the event. On the Java island DJ Armin van Buuren will perform with the royal concertgebouw orchestra. At the end of the celebration 150.000 orange balloons will be released in the sky.
All in all not too bad, no toe-curving performances by Dutch B-pop artists are announced yet. So let's count our blessings while we can.
------------
From April 22nd there will be a photo exposition of Queen Beatrix in the building of the European parlament in Brussels:
http://www.refdag.nl/achtergrond/ko...er_koningin_beatrix_in_europarlement_1_730175
----------------------
A funny story from the Reformatorisch Dagblad: The chairman of the Orange foundation in the town of Urk (Flevoland), declined an invitation to the ceremony. He says that he doesn't own a suit and doesn't want to buy one either. He also adds that the ceremony will last for four hours, and he doesn't know if he can sit still for that amount of time... and adds that he wouldn't know what to do if he needed to go to the toilet during the ceremony:
http://www.refdag.nl/achtergrond/ko...een_pak_en_wat_te_doen_bij_hoge_nood_1_730375
-------------
yesterday mayor van der Laan announced that 10.000 police(wo)men will be present in Amsterdam on April 30th. There will be extra security easures around the Amstel hotel and the Okura hotel, where the foreign royal guests will be staying.
10.000 agenten ingezet voor inhuldiging Willem-Alexander - BINNENLAND - PAROOL
---------------
According to Radio DJ Gerard Ekdom, who attended the special lunch in Noordeinde palace yesterday, the prince said that his mother already told him about her abdication plans 1 1/2 years ago.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/1236...Gerard-Ekdom-prins-wist-het-al-1-5-jaar.dhtml
-----------
The commander of the Dutch Armed Forces, Tom Middendorp, will carry the state sword during the inauguration. This means that he will lead the king's procession from the palace to the new church. The state banner will be carried by Ton van Ede, Inspector-General of the Armed Forces:
Nieuws.nl - Legerchef Middendorp draagt rijkszwaard
I wonder who will actually announce the arrival of the king in the church. For Beatrix it was done by Erik Hazelhoff-Roelfzema aka 'soldier of Orange'. I suppose under normal circumstances Marco Kroon, the newest knight of the Militairy Willems order would be the obvious choice. Were it not that he was accused of the use of cocaine not too long ago. Even though he is acquitted from the drugs charges, he was sentenced a E. 750,- fine and a conditional 80 hours of community service for possession and provision of electroshock weapons. I can imagine that they will decide to ask somebody else.
