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Originally this built in the 13th Century and dedicated to St. Nicolas, patron of sailors church, had been a wooden construction. At the end of 13th C. the decision was taken to build a stone church. The Oude Kerk had at first the form of a Roman hall church, the first church of its kind in the Netherlands. In 1306, the church has been consecrated by the Catholic bishop of Utrecht Guy van Avesnes van Henegouwen, whose sculpted grave you may still see at the Dome in Utrecht. In 1340, the Oude Kerk had been enlarged to a remarkably sizeable structure for a city, which had at the time three to four thousands inhabitants. Wonderfully, the big fires of Amsterdam in 1421 and 1452, which ruined then mostly built of wood town, did not damage the Oude Kerk. In the 14th and 15th Centuries, the church has been the Amsterdam parochial church, and because the city grew rapidly, the Oude Kerk has been several time rebuilt and enlarged. In 1565 the Oude Kerk received the bell tower and since then its architecture did not change much.
