Nieuwe Waalse 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

A CHURCH created in two periods. Former New Walloon Church. Initially built between 1854 and 1856. A commemorative stone beside the pulpit staircase records the laying of the first stone in the year 1855. During a fire in 1861 the roof structure collapsed. In 1862 it was rebuilt in modified form. In both cases the architect was A.N. Godefroy. The client was the Church Council of the Walloon Reformed Congregation in Amsterdam. Built in the eclectic style.

NB.

Little remains of the original interior of this gallery church, in which the galleries painted in wood colour rested on iron columns. On the galleries were wooden lanterns with cast-iron fittings. The walls are still articulated by semicircular arches and pilasters with cornice. The plastered iron beams, which rest on corbels, support a wooden lantern. The original hinged seats were partly made of cast iron. In 1912, at the commission of the Church Council of the Walloon Reformed Congregation in Amsterdam, architect H.A.J. Baanders remodelled the music gallery of the 'New Walloon Church on the Keizersgracht'. In 1959 the denomination changed and, at the commission of The Seventh-day Adventist Church, North Netherlands Conference, a hexagonal baptismal font was built. A double staircase led to the font of this then 'Advent Church'. In 1989 the function changed to a dance training centre with office and canteen space. Much of the interior intended for worship was then lost. The organ was removed, the gallery balustrade was largely removed, as were large portions of the furnishings. Furthermore, an additional mezzanine was added. Currently (1995) dance, music and singing lessons are given among other things. There are also exhibitions, concerts, theatrical performances and a café.

Description

Hall church designed on a rectangular plan with galleries beneath a blunt gabled roof with lantern. The front façade with the central projection is constructed of hardstone (plinth with moulded upper edge) and sandstone (other façade parts). In the centre of the lightly projecting central part of the façade is the main entrance composition consisting of a simple double wooden door with lights with stained-glass window infill. Door set in surrounding moulded frame. In the plinth zone with emphasised blocks of natural stone left and right of the central projection a single wooden entrance door in surrounding frame. On either side of the central entrance a lantern with fine fittings.

Above the plinth zone three moulded stringcourses with intervening undecorated friezes. Above this in the central projection a tall semicircular arched window with cross form in the main tracery, further surrounding tracery and glazing bars separated from each other by square panes. On either side a moulded corner pilaster with base, capital and shaft field with circular ornament. Around the arch a moulding. On either side of this part of the central projection a lisene on base with recessed field. Two blocks with recessed field as it were as capital. A similar frieze between them. Above a moulded and partly projecting moulding is the upper part of the central projection. In it a central window composition consisting of a larger and taller central window and two flanking windows. The semicircular arched windows have tracery and glazing bars with mostly square panes. A simple moulding runs around the arches. These mouldings rest on four pilasters with base and capital. Below the windows natural stone panels with moulded spare field. The central projection is terminated by lisenes with spare field. On this a short moulding. On this on more sides a worked square post with staggered recessed fields, flat pilasters on the front and closed off by a cornice resting on corbels or consoles. On this still a five-sided natural stone coping with simple spare field. Above the window composition an ascending series of lancet windows with casement windows with stained-glass infill. Above this still an ascending arch frieze with consoles on elongated pedestals between the windows. Moulding with spout on which cornice with coping as mentioned.

On either side of the central projection a façade section with above the plinth a semicircular arched window with main division and further partly surrounding tracery. Mostly square panes in the infill. Arch rests on moulded pilasters with base and capital and recessed field. Above this a frieze with moulded bands and series of vertical chasing. Above this façade section with small coupled window composition consisting of two lancet windows with stained-glass infill in casement window. Further a dividing pilaster with capital and base, moulded lower edge and projecting band on corbels to emphasise the arch. Above this a moulding on consoles and frieze with series of eight square spare fields with moulding. Above further moulding series of seven lancet windows with stained-glass infill in the casement windows and one blank window. Moulding on corbels with at the corner a slightly smaller version of the post as described at the corner termination of the central projection. On this side section of the front façade rests as it were a claw-piece, the three-sided transition to the more elevated central projection. In this 'claw-piece' moulding and spare field.

Valuation

Church building of general importance due to its architectural-historical value. The detailed treatment of the front façade executed in classicistic formal language is thereby of great importance. The integration into the existing gracht wall - in fact the urban-design and historical value - is of importance. The proportions of mass and façade in the already existing structure are good. Furthermore of cultural-historical value as a particular expression of a spiritual development. Of typological importance.