The Munsterkerk (''Munster'') is a 13th-century church dedicated to Our Lady in the Dutch town of

Roermond Roermond (; or ) is a city, municipality, and diocese in the Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg province of the Netherlands. Roermond is a historically important town on the lower Roer on the east bank of the river Meuse. It received City rights i ...

. Its remarkable front towers are 55 meter in height. The Munsterkerk is one of the most important examples of Late Romanesque architecture in 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 ...

.Roermond (L): Munsterkerk
/ref> The Roermond Minster is the only surviving part of an

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

, the rest of which was demolished in 1924. The church was renovated by architect P. J. H. Cuypers between 1863 and 1890; during this renovation, the two front towers were added while after a smaller

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

bell tower on the nave was removed, and the originally octagonal eastern towers were replaced by square ones. The renovation of the Roermond Minster was highly controversial, but Cuypers continued to renovate the Minster according to his plan. In 1992, the church was damaged by an

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

which destroyed the two eastern towers, which were rebuilt shortly after. The church is a

Rijksmonument A (, ) is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. At the end of February 2015, the Netherlands had 61,822 l ...

, and is part of the

Top 100 Dutch heritage sites The Top 100 Dutch heritage sites is a list of rijksmonuments in the Netherlands, established in 1990 by the Department for Conservation (Monumentenzorg, today the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed). The Top 100 was a selection of historical mo ...

Burials

* Richardis of Bavaria *

Gerard III, Count of Guelders Gerard III of Guelders (1185 – 22 October 1229) was the Count of Guelders and Zutphen from 1207 until his death in 1229. He was a son of Count Otto I of Guelders, and is sometimes called Gerard IV or Gerard V. Gerard married Margaretha of B ...

*his wife, Margaretha of Brabant

Notes

External links

*
130 pictures of the church
Churches in Limburg (Netherlands) Rijksmonuments in Limburg Towers in Limburg (Netherlands) Buildings and structures in Roermond Burial sites of the House of Wassenberg {{Netherlands-church-stub