Delft, centrum met de Oude Kerk RM11970 foto1 2014-03-09 11

The Oude Kerk (Old Church), nicknamed ''Oude Jan'' ("Old John") and ''Scheve Jan'' ("Skewed John"), is a Gothic

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

church in the old city center of Delft, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Its most recognizable feature is a 75-meter-high brick tower that leans about two meters from the vertical.

History

The Oude Kerk was founded as St. Bartholomew's Church in the year 1246, on the site of previous churches dating back up to two centuries earlier. The layout followed that of a traditional

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

, with a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

flanked by two smaller

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

s. The tower with its central spire and four corner turrets was added between 1325–50, and dominated the townscape for a century and a half until it was surpassed in height by the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church). During its construction the foundations were not strong enough to support the building, and the church began to lean. As work continued, the builders tried to compensate for its lean on each layer of the tower, but to this day only the four turrets at the top are truly vertical. It is possible that the course of the adjacent canal had to be shifted slightly to make room for the tower, leaving an unstable foundation that caused the tilt. By the end of the 14th century, expansion of the side aisles to the height of the nave transformed the building into a

hall church A hall church is a church with a nave and aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was invented in the mid-19th century by Wilhelm Lübke, a pioneering German art historian. In contrast to an archi ...

, which was rededicated to St. Hippolytus. The church again took on a typical basilican cross-section with the construction of a higher nave between about 1425 and 1440. The Delft town fire of 1536 and the turmoil of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...

brought a premature end to an ambitious expansion project led by two members of the Keldermans family of master builders. This construction phase resulted in the flat-roofed, stone-walled northern

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

arm that differs markedly in style from the older parts. The great fire,

iconoclasm Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be conside ...

, weather, and the explosion of the town's gunpowder store in 1654 (''see Delft Explosion'') took their toll on the church and its furnishings, necessitating much repair work over the years. During one renovation, the tower turrets were rebuilt in a more vertical alignment than the leaning body below, giving the tower as a whole a slightly kinked appearance. The current stained-glass windows were crafted by the master glazier Joep Nicolas in the mid-20th century.

Furnishings

The church possesses three pipe organs, from the years 1857 (main organ), 1873 (north aisle) and 1770 (choir).

Bells

There are 2 bells that hang in the tower, The large ''Trinitasklok'' or ''Bourdon'', chimes every hour and the small Laudate which chimes every half hour. The larger of the two bells was cast in 1570 weighs nearly nine

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s, and because of its strong and potentially damaging vibrations, is rung only on such special occasions as the burial of a

Dutch royal family The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

member in the nearby New Church. The massive bell is also sounded during disasters, when local air-raid sirens are sounded (but not during the monthly country-wide siren tests). In April 2020, the Bourdon was part of the "Bells of Hope" initiative as a token of appreciation for the relief workers and caregivers during the first weeks of the corona pandemic outbreak. The smaller of the two bells has an unusual story. In 1943 the clock, together with the one from the Nieuwe Kerk, was taken by the German occupier to be melted down. Fortunately that never happened; in 1946 Laudate was put back in its old place.

Graves

Approximately 400 people are entombed in the Oude Kerk, including the following notables: * Elizabeth Morgan, daughter of nobleman Marnix van St. Aldegonde (1608) * noblewoman and benefactrix Clara van Spaerwoude (1615) * naval hero Piet Hein (1629) * writer Jan Stalpaert van der Wiele (1630) * naval hero

Maarten Tromp Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (also written as ''Maerten Tromp''; 23 April 1598 – 31 July 1653) was a Dutch army general and admiral in the Dutch navy. Son of a ship's captain, Tromp spent much of his childhood at sea, including being capture ...

(1653) * painter

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

(1675) * painter Hendrick Cornelisz van Vliet, who had painted the church interior (1675) * statesman

Anthonie Heinsius Anthonie (or Antonius) Heinsius (23 November 1641, Delft – 3 August 1720, The Hague) was a Dutch statesman who served as Grand Pensionary of Holland from 1689 to his death in 1720. Life Heinsius was born at Delft on 23 November 1641, son o ...

(1720) * scientist

Anton van Leeuwenhoek Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek ( ; ; 24 October 1632 – 26 August 1723) was a Dutch microbiologist and microscopist in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as " the ...

(1723) * poet Hubert Poot (1733)

External links

Oude Kerk website

View of the Oude Kerk
painted by Jan van der Heyden, ca. 1660 (Web Gallery of Art) {{coord, 52, 0, 45, N, 4, 21, 19, E, type:landmark_region:NL-ZH, display=title 14th-century churches in the Netherlands Towers completed in the 14th century Rijksmonuments in Delft Brick Gothic Inclined towers Churches in South Holland Protestant churches in the Netherlands Gothic architecture in the Netherlands