Amsterdam Anniversary: Free Admission for Amsterdammers
27 October 2026
Celebrate Amsterdam's anniversary at the Oude Kerk and visit the city's historic vault.
Free admission for Amsterdam residents
On 27 October, Amsterdam celebrates its 751st anniversary. To mark the occasion, the Oude Kerk will be open free of charge to all Amsterdam residents throughout the day. Simply bring a letter or other piece of post showing your Amsterdam address as proof of residence. Specially for the anniversary, the Iron Chapel (IJzeren Kapel) – the city's former vault – will also be open all day. Every hour and half hour, a special lift will take visitors up to this remarkable space. For centuries, the Iron Chapel safeguarded Amsterdam's most important civic documents, including the Tolprivilege of 27 October 1275, Amsterdam's founding charter. It is this historic document that is commemorated each year on 27 October.
The second vase from the Iron Chapel
For more than a century, the Iron Chapel stood empty until artist Navid Nuur gave the space a new purpose. In the run-up to Amsterdam's 750th anniversary, he created one hundred unique vases using clay and other raw materials collected from across the city. The vases are kept in the former city vault. Each year, one vase is ceremonially brought out. On 27 October, Nuur will retrieve the second vase from the chapel.
The Iron Chapel
From the fifteenth century onwards, the Iron Chapel served as Amsterdam’s secure archive within the Oude Kerk. Five metres above ground level, the city’s most important documents, parchment charters bearing official seals, were stored in an oak charter cabinet with 45 drawers. The space was heavily secured with several doors and a total of five keys, distributed among different city officials. The charter cabinet remained in the Oude Kerk until 1892. Today, the historic documents are preserved in the Amsterdam City Archives.
One hundred vases with the spirit of Amsterdam
Artist Navid Nuur created one hundred earthenware vases in the Oude Kerk during the winter of 2024–2025 to mark Amsterdam's 750th anniversary. He took them out into the city and rolled them against façades, doors, bridges, and street furniture, imprinting the vases with the city's physical traces. He gathered the glaze for the vases from across Amsterdam. Among the materials he used were shells from the IJ, glass from cafés, charcoal from a shawarma shop, ash from a pizzeria, and silt from the canals. In doing so, he imbued this universal, ancient object with the soul of Amsterdam.
One hundred years of art
Navid Nuur sees the one hundred vases as the driving force behind another hundred years of art at the Oude Kerk. Each year, a city vase will be auctioned from the chapel on Amsterdam’s anniversary. Nuur wants the Oude Kerk to use the proceeds to make new art possible over the next hundred years.
