West Church (Westerkerk)

Westerkerk is the burial place of the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt, who at the end of his life lived nearby, at Rozengracht 184. A year earlier his son Titus was also buried here. When he died in 1669, Rembrandt was so poor, that he was buried in an unmarked church grave, with several other people, where human remains were buried only for 20 years, to make place for other poor people in the same grave. That is why the exact place of Rembrandt’s grave remains unknown. A memorial shield inside the church on its left nave wall, is a symbolic mark of Rembrandt’s place of burial.