The Zuiderkerk stands on Zuiderkerkhof square in the Nieuwmarkt area of Amsterdam. Hendrick de Keyser designed it, and it was built from 1603 to 1611, with the tower completed in 1614. De Keyser was buried in the church in 1621. It is a Renaissance design in the form of a Gothic pseudo-basilica, with a central nave, two lower aisles, Tuscan columns and timber barrel vaults. The tower has an octagonal sandstone section and a wooden spire covered with lead.
The Hemony brothers installed the carillon in 1656. Services ended in 1929, and the church served as a temporary morgue in the hunger winter of 1944 and 1945. It was closed in 1970 when it was close to collapse, and it was renovated from 1976 to 1979.
Since 1988 it has been a municipal information center with exhibitions and a permanent scale model of Amsterdam.
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