Kerk, Buorren 42

English translation

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Description

Introduction

Dutch Reformed CROSS CHURCH built in eclectic style and attached TOWER with neo-Renaissance ornamentation. The original eighteenth-century hall church was rebuilt in 1892 into a cross church, with a transept and apse. A stone tablet from 1716 in the front facade refers to the old hall church. On the stone a coat of arms with a rooster and lily is depicted and the inscription: `Favente Deo ter Opt Max Aedes Haec Sacra Ab Incolis Huius Vici Exstructa Anno Domini CDDCCXVI Hectore Wilhelmo:a Glinstra Territorii Praetore'.

The text on the stone tablet in the apse refers to the 1892 rebuilding: `On 20 July 1892 the first stone of the new part of this church was laid on behalf of the church wardens A.J. Inia-W.H. van der Meer, G.W. van der Wielen by the aforementioned adm. church warden'. Internally the church was completely altered in 1949, with only the pulpit, baptism gate, and organ remaining intact. The tower was built in 1905 to a design by architect W.C. de Groot (1853-1939) and replaced an older tower.

The church stands slightly outside the village and is part of a complex consisting of, after 1945 greatly altered and extended, parsonage and school buildings. Around the church lies a simple cemetery enclosed by a hedge.

Description

The cross church is constructed in reddish-brown brick and has a five-sided apse. The gabled roofs of the nave and transept and the five-sided hipped roof above the apse are covered with blue glazed Frisian curved tiles. In the roof panels of the nave there are four small dormers under tent rooflets; gutter moulding on profiled gutter brackets; frieze of coloured decorative brickwork. The gables of the transept and the apse stand on a mortared plinth in dark brown brick; heavy rod anchors in all gables. The gable top of the front facade is provided with interlacing and white-painted natural stone ashlar stones and coping plates, as well as the shoulder gables of the transept which are decorated with stone banding. On the shoulders ornamental balls with wrought-iron decorations. The spout gable is decorated with toothed plasterwork and topped with a pediment.

In the gables of the nave are on each side three round-headed windows with nineteenth-century tracery; identical but slightly larger window sections in the transept; in the apse they are blocked. All windows with white ashlar and coping stones and coloured stained glass. The gravel concrete window sills are of later date.

The TOWER which is centrally placed against the west gable of the church, is constructed on a plinth of rough-hewn natural stone, on a square ground plan in reddish-brown brick alternated with decorative bands of yellow brick. On the ridge of the octagonal tent roof stands a slender eight-sided spire with egg-shaped constriction; weathervane; roof and spire are covered with slate in Maas-pattern slating; frieze and gutter moulding as those of the church, but with more elaborately decorated gutter brackets. In the south gable is the heavy clamped round-headed entrance door with decorative wrought-iron hinges and fittings, within a frame of massive natural stone blocks. Above this frame a stone tablet between claw pieces with volute decorations and pediment capping. The text on the stone tablet reads: `On 28 September 1905 the first stone of this new tower was laid by: J.G. Dillema, F.H. v.d. Veen and S.A. Visser Church Wardens'.

In the gables of the tower basket-arched spandrels, in which from bottom to top: three straight-headed windows under natural stone lintel, two arched windows and sound holes under natural stone lintel with round-headed arches. On the gable on the church side the windows are missing. The clock from 1905 is by G. de Loozer of Leeuwarden: four identical dial plates with Roman numerals between pilasters with wings under a pediment. The volute decoration on the wings is a repetition of that on the claw pieces above the entrance.

In the tower is a stone tablet with the inscription `On 3 June 1801 Maike H. Wadman laid the first stone. The directors of this Tower-work were Hon. Mr. F. Wadman and Oege Aukes as guardians of Tietsjerk but through the death of the latter Gerijt Andrijsen was elected in his place.' This stone refers to the old belfry which in 1905 was replaced by the current one.

INTERNALLY the barrel vault of the nave rests on a profiled moulding above small consoles. Above the choir a melon vault in three segments. Monumental older interior components in the otherwise modernised interior: tower clock from 1608; eighteenth-century oak pulpit and baptism gate; organ with main work and upper work from 1887 by Bakker and Timmenga from Leeuwarden. Also striking are the Ten Commandments boards in the transept arms with gilt letters on black background within an attractive frame.

Valuation

The originally eighteenth-century church building with pulpit, baptism gate and organ, which in 1892 acquired a late nineteenth-century appearance, and the tower from 1905 with bell from 1608 are of general cultural and architectural-historical significance:

- because of the Neo-Renaissance building style and ornamentation particularly of the tower;

- because of the regional uniqueness of the tower;

- because of the high degree of integrity;

- because of the presence of the eighteenth-century pulpit with baptism gate, the organ from 1887 and the bell from 1608;

- because of the image-determining significance for the appearance of the village of Tytsjerk.