Kerk en kerkonderdeel, Kerkbuurt 9

English translation

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Description

Blankenham, Dutch Reformed CHURCH. Important church building situated behind the old Zuiderzee dike, on a small elevation beside a breakthrough channel, erected in 1892 in eclectic neo-Renaissance style according to a design by architect W. Duiks de Jong from Sloten. Contractors: Brothers R. and K. de Vries from Oldeholtpade.

Contemporary furnishings and organ from 1893, built by the firm Bakker & Timmenga in Leeuwarden; late 19th-century communion silver.

The present building was erected in place of a predecessor from 1816, which was lost by lightning strike in 1892, which itself replaced a 15th-century building dedicated to St. Nicholas.

Simple five-bay church building with three-sided closed form, erected on the foundations of predecessors and covered by a three-sided hipped roof with blue-grey tiles with cast-iron ornamentation on the choir side; the reddish-brown brickwork is enlivened by decorative brickwork of yellow pressed brick and by black-glazed bricks and similar artificial stone; the gutter rests on identically constructed small blocks of yellow pressed brick; cast-iron ornamental wall anchors.

The front facade is articulated by corner pilasters crowned by artificial stone ornamental elements; the pilasters of the central section transition into a square partly wooden turret with an octagonal slate-covered spire with copper weather vane and moulded lists above the bell openings; the front facade has tall round-arched windows with cast-iron tracery with trifoil motif, round rose windows and coupled round-arched wooden windows; stone tablet with inscription: THIS PRAYER HOUSE 18 92/rose from the Ruins of/the Church Building struck by/Heavenly Fire on 18 June 1892/and completely burned down,/which was consecrated on 6 Nov. 1816. The side facades likewise have tall round-arched windows with cast-iron tracery with trifoil motif; the right side facade additionally has double doors, set within a plastered frame decorated with block motifs and scrollwork, above which cast-iron trifoil fanlight; both side walls of the choir closure have a door, respectively a round-arched window with cast-iron tracery with trifoil motif; the rear wall is blank.

The interior with stuccoed barrel vault and similarly treated walls contains simple contemporary wooden furnishings including pews, a pulpit and two hymn boards, both with neo-Renaissance motifs; the organ with three-tower front rests on a balcony supported by slender twisted cast-iron columns with leaf motif, and comprises a single-manual balustrade organ with 10 registers and appended pedal; it was built in 1893 by Bakker & Timmenga in Leeuwarden; the relatively rich case, decorated with ornamental work, is dated 1893. In the tower hangs a bell, originating from the Frisian Echten, cast in 1597 by Cornelius van Ammeroy and purchased in 1892 for the new church building from the firm Van Bergen in Heiligerlee; it is decorated with Renaissance motifs and bears the inscription: THE WORD OF GOD REMAINS ETERNALLY/CORNELIUS AMMEROY MADE ME 1597. On the rim: LAWRENCE PATRON OF ECHTEN. The inventory also includes a silver communion set consisting of a dish, a jug, two chalices and a collection plate with date-letter 1878 and marked with the master's mark FH (=F.E. Held, Amsterdam).

Church building of importance owing to:

-the remains of older predecessors still present beneath the foundations;

-the remembrance of these predecessors kept alive by the present church building at this location;

-the striking location marking the very small village of Blankenham, situated on a small elevation beside a breakthrough channel behind the old Zuiderzee dike;

-the distinctive eclectic neo-Renaissance styling;

-the organ from 1893 in a relatively richly carved case;

-the contemporary furnishings;

-Bell frame with bell by C. van Ammeroy, 1597, diameter 84.2 cm.

-the communion set from 1878.