The Martin Luther Church (

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

: Maarten Luther Kerk or ''Lutherse Kerk'') is a church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Suriname. It is located on

Waterkant The Waterkant is the oldest and one of the most important streets of Paramaribo, Paramaribo, Suriname. The street is located in the historic Centrum, Paramaribo, centre on the Suriname River, and was the location where ships used to arrive. The ...

in the historic

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

Paramaribo Paramaribo ( , , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's p ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

. The building is a monument. The first church burnt down in 1832. The current church dates from 1834.

History

The Lutheran congregation of

had been sharing the

Centrumkerk Centrumkerk is a church of the Dutch Reformed Church of Suriname. It is located on Kerkplein in the Centrum, Paramaribo, centre of Paramaribo. It was the State religion, state church until independence of Suriname in 1975. The Centrumkerk is a mo ...

with the

Dutch Reformed Church of Suriname The Dutch Reformed Church of Suriname was founded in 1667–1668 by Rev Basselieres. It was a church of Dutch people, Dutch colonists. There members used to be white settlers and freed slaves. Most church activities were in Paramaribo. Until 1850 ...

. On 15 November 1741, the

Society of Suriname The Society of Suriname ( Dutch: ''Sociëteit van Suriname'') was a Dutch private company, modelled on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and set up on 21 May 1683 to profit from the management and defense of the Dutch Republic's colony of Suri ...

allowed the congregation to build their own church providing it was out of sight of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1742, Johannes Pfaff arrived as the first pastor. On 2 September 1744, the first stone was laid, and the church was consecrated in 1747. The first church was destroyed in the fire of 1832. A new church was built at the same location in

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

by C.A. Roman. The church was consecrated on 6 July 1834. In 1940, little houses were built near the church for elderly single women. In 1975, an old age home was constructed on the terrain. In 1975, the church was officially named Maarten Luther Kerk.

Building

The church has been built using

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

ed brick. The

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

is laid with

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

tiles. The interior is supported by six

Doric columns The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

. The white interior is contrasted by the dark

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

and organ. The organ of the church was built by and delivered in January 1833 after the first church had burnt down. It was returned to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and finally installed on 3 May 1835. In 2016, it was restored.

Johannes Helstone Johannes Helstone, born ''Nicodemus Johannes Helstone'' (11 January 1853 – 24 April 1927), was a Surinamese composer, pianist and writer. He is best known for his 1906 opera ''Het Pand der Goden''. Biography Helstone was born on the Moravian ...

was one of the organists of the church. On 2 June 1892, a memorial stone for G.C. Steijnis was placed behind the pulpit. Steijnis was the pastor of the church who publicly criticised governor de Savornin Lohman.

References

{{Religious buildings in Suriname Churches in Paramaribo