Evangelisch Lutherse Kerk

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction

The EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH is a brick neogothic hall church with a semicircular closed apse and slender tower with an attenuated needle spire. To the right, a narrow CARETAKER'S DWELLING stands against the church. Both buildings are connected by a corridor that runs along the west facade of the church and extends towards the CONSISTORY ROOM at the rear of the plot.

The church and the caretaker's dwelling are located in the southern facade of the narrow Spoorwegstraat, in the plot between the Velperplein and the Hommelstraat. The choir section of the church is partially obscured from view in the Van Muijlwijkstraat - a post-war traffic thoroughfare - by two-storey buildings with flat roofs. Just south of the Lutheran church stands the R.C. Sint-Martinuskerk from 1875 by architect A. Tepe at the Steenstraat (national monument). Both churches are oriented with their choir sections towards each other.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church at the Spoorwegstraat was built in 1897-1898, after the small church at the Korenmarkt (former warehouse "de Bontenborch", national monument) had become too small. The design from September 1896 in neogothic style is by engineer A.R. FREEM (1853-1921). The caretaker's dwelling furthermore shows neo-renaissance influences. The construction was tendered for f 56,250,- to the firm Mulder and Van Wessem. The necessary funds for the construction of the church tower were donated in February 1897 by Mrs G.A. Swaving-Arriens. The first church service took place on 27 March 1898. Freem also designed the now demolished Remonstrant Church at the Rietgrachtstraat in Arnhem.

During the Second World War, the southern section of the roof, windows and church furnishings were destroyed and subsequently restored in style. In the 1980s a number of stained-glass windows were added.

Description

Neogothic HALL CHURCH with entrance section and tower on the north side, and semicircular closed apse on the south side. The brick facades are laid in Flemish bond with struck joints. The rendered plinth is provided with corner blocks and a profiled hardsteen drip moulding. The facades are terminated by a rendered band of moulded stones on which the gutter sits. The roof of the church and the attenuated needle spire of the tower are covered with slate in Maas pattern and provided with small roof dormers (wooden shutters with hourglass paintwork in blue and white, attached half-hipped rooflets with three-sided overhang at the front, iron roof cresting). On the ridge of the church roof is placed a wooden rectangular roof lantern which is provided all around with a series of trefoil openings. The roof lantern is crowned by a gabled roof with iron roof cresting. The needle spire is crowned by a wrought-iron cross on which a weathervane in the shape of a swan. The tower has a square ground plan and consists of three storeys accompanied at the corners by buttresses with splayed angles and pointed-arch recesses. The tall first storey has a pointed-arch portal at the front with above it a tall pointed-arch window. The portal consists of: profiled stone-faced edges and archivolt of red brick; steps and nosings of hardsteen; voussoirs and keystones of sandstone; a clasped double revolving door with wrought-iron ornamental metalwork; a natural stone pointed-arch tympanum with depiction of the Lutheran swan with spread wings. To the right of the portal is a hardsteen foundation stone mortared in with the inscription: "The foundation stone laid by J.E. Schröder Preacher of the Congregation 12 May 1897". The large pointed-arch window has brick tracery and a weathering. The second storey has on front, left and right sides each two coupled pointed-arch recesses with above and below a smaller pointed-arch recess containing a rectangular opening. The third storey (bell chamber) has in all four sides two coupled pointed-arch recesses with each at the bottom a rectangular wooden shutter, in the middle a large sound hole with boards and at the top blind brick tracery work. The tower is flanked at the height of the first storey by narrow side compartments with lean-to roofs. The left side compartment has a pointed-arch entrance on the front (clasped revolving door with wrought-iron ornamental metalwork and arch tympanum with trefoil arch) and above it two coupled stained-glass pointed-arch windows. The side facade of this compartment has two similar windows and is terminated by a climbing pointed-arch frieze and a roof ridge. The right side compartment has in the first and second storey two coupled stained-glass pointed-arch windows. The termination is identical to that of the left side compartment. The facades of the nave and apse are articulated by buttresses with splayed angles. Between the buttresses is located each time one large pointed-arch window with brick tracery.

The PLAN of the church consists of a vestibule under the tower, a broad nave of six bays with in the first bay a singers' gallery and a closing semicircular apse with triumphal arch of red and black brick. The space under the gallery was expanded in the 1980s and closed off towards the nave. This space in which two columns of black granite with sandstone leaf capitals serves as a coffee and meeting room. In the side portal on the east side of the main entrance a modern kitchen has been placed.

The richly executed CHURCH INTERIOR contains amongst other things a terrazzo floor in the vestibule with the text: "Guard thy feet, when thou goest to the house of God"; several wooden doors with letter panels; the original furnishings with church pews, a choirstall overhung by vaults (following the curve of the apse) and a pulpit (relocated); a two-manual, purely pneumatic ORGAN with free pedal, made by the firm Standaart from Rotterdam in 1913. The organ case is designed after a design by A.R. Freem, architect of the church building; a wooden barrel vault on tie beams with central posts, and strips of coffered ceiling along the walls on wall posts with carved corbels and profiled stone corbels; polychrome stencilled paintings on the original parts of the vault and the coffering; carved wooden vault bosses against the transverse ribs of the barrel vault; one large round iron light chandelier (originally three specimens).

Along the west facade of the church is a corridor with flat roof. The corridor is open at the street side through a portico under a lean-to roof. The lean-to roof between spout gables with roof ridges is attached against the left side facade of the caretaker's dwelling. The portico has in the gable at the front a semi-pointed-arch opening with wrought-iron swing gate, and on the left side two coupled corbel-arch terminated openings with low openwork balustrade of moulded stones. The portico has an entrance section in the rear wall, consisting of a wooden panel door (six panes, three wrought-iron grilles, worked stiles) and a pointed-arch fanlight. The polychrome tile floor (diamond pattern with stylised floral and leaf motifs) continues into the corridor. The corridor is subdivided by steep transverse arches and is covered with a flat ceiling. The corridor leads to the CONSISTORY ROOM which is built against the west facade of the church. This one-storey building section with flat roof on rectangular ground plan has in the rear facade three pointed-arch terminated wall openings: two pointed-arch windows with brick tracery and stained glass (geometric and stylised floral motifs) and a double revolving door with pointed-arch fanlight. The consistory room possesses a large number of valuable INTERIOR ELEMENTS, such as wainscoting with panels and worked rails and stiles; wooden doors with letter panels and worked surrounds; a fireplace consisting of a trapezoidal smoke hood with worked wooden mantelpiece on built-up supports with worked sandstone stone corbels (leaf motif) and tiled rear wall; polychrome painted beam layer with the keystones provided with a pear moulding.

The largely built-in one-aisle CARETAKER'S DWELLING has three storeys and an attic storey on rectangular ground plan. The brick facades are laid in Flemish bond with struck joints. The rendered plinth has a cuckoo moulding and is provided with corner blocks and a profiled hardsteen drip moulding. The facades are richly provided with ornamental wall anchors and are terminated by a rendered band of moulded stones on which the gutter sits. The hipped roof is covered with slate in Maas pattern and has iron roof cresting at the ridge ends. The FRONT FACADE is horizontally articulated by profiled drip mouldings and speck-layers of sandstone. The three storeys each possess three coupled windows under blind arches. The first and second storey have a sash window with fanlight between narrow single-pane windows with fanlights. The closing round and segmental arches have voussoirs and keystones of sandstone and are filled with brick mosaic. The third storey has three coupled equally wide casement windows with two-pane upper sections under blind segmental arches with voussoirs and keystones of sandstone. The upper sills of the windows are clad with upcurled lead slabs.

The LEFT SIDE FACADE has halfway up three arched wall openings one above the other: in the first storey an entrance (in the corridor) and in the upper storeys each a sash window under blind segmental arch. The RIGHT SIDE FACADE projects with the third storey above the adjacent buildings and is executed blind.

The modernised INTERIOR has in the first storey a living/reception room with a black marble fireplace and a simple stucco ceiling.

Evaluation

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH incl. ORGAN with CARETAKER'S DWELLING and CONSISTORY ROOM from 1897-1898.

- Of architectural-historical value as the sole surviving religious building by engineer FREEM (1853-1921) in Arnhem, and therefore of importance for his oeuvre about which little else is known. Church and caretaker's dwelling are moreover of value as a largely intact example in exterior of a late-19th-century complex, with high aesthetic qualities of the constituent components, which, although executed in different architectural styles (neogothic church and caretaker's dwelling with neo-renaissance influences), executed by one architect form a visual unity. In particular the church and the consistory room have a rare interior and possess special elements, such as a painted wooden barrel vault, polychrome painted wainscoting and doors with letter panels.

- Of urban value as an important component of the historically developed urban area north of the Velperplein and in relation to the nearby R.C. Sint-Martinuskerk at the Steenstraat (national monument). The tall towers of both churches together are of special significance for the Arnhem cityscape. The row of connected church, caretaker's dwelling and consistory room form a characteristic ensemble.

- Of cultural-historical value as a particular expression of a religious development: the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation for Arnhem and surroundings with a history dating back to 1644. From that year church services took place in the former warehouse "de Bontenborch" at the Korenmarkt (national monument), and since 1898 in this church at the Spoorwegstraat. Both buildings are recognisable as such by the symbol of the swan on the front facade.