Johannes de Doperkerk

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

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, part of a complex with RECTORY, dedicated to John the Baptist, built on the initiative of rector J.B.H.A.M. Tepe by H.P.J. de Vries from Rotterdam in 1932-'34 with the collaboration of Arjen Witteveen from Leeuwarden. Church, rectory and two schools are situated around a spacious square and formed a modern variant of a Catholic enclave. One of the schools has been demolished and the other, in which a convent was also housed, has changed use. The rectory also met this fate. The style is a mixture of traditional elements, Delft School and Scandinavian influences. The traditional comes out amongst other things in the use of materials, buttresses, the pointed-arch windows and the gabled-roof towers. The rough brickwork treatment (amongst other things, headers) with deep-set joints shows influences of Expressionism. The steel window frames of the rectory reveal interest in the New Building movement and Dudok. The architect may also have been inspired by the Grundvig Church in Copenhagen (1920-1940) by Peter Jensen Klint, in particular by the sequences of climbing pointed-arch windows. While the form is traditional, the liturgical arrangement is very contemporary, even experimental. It is a Christocentric church, in which the altar stands in the crossing on a platform one and a half metres high. The congregation sits around it in three blocks of pews. Behind the altar the choir and organ are placed. The church has 800 seats. The church underwent only very minor alterations, which were mainly confined to the priest's choir. The passage from the church to the rectory was blocked when the rectory became an office space.

Description:

GROUND PLAN: Cruciform ground plan with a broad, three-aisle nave, single-aisle transept and a shallow 'choir' with sacristy in the north-west corner. The church is not oriented: the 'choir' faces north. The sacristy is incorporated in a low intermediate section between church and rectory, which is flat-roofed. On the west side of the sacristy lies the rectory, which is connected to it by a corridor. The nave is four bays deep, each transept arm three. The façade is flanked by two towers and has a projecting low entrance portico in front. There are two chapels on either side of the entrance and two on either side of the 'choir'. The 'choir' is in this case not the location of the altar but of the singers' choir and organ. The altar stands in the crossing.

EXTERIOR: The church is built from rough variegated headers, mixed with headers. The roofs are covered with specially fired large red Roman tiles. All openings are pointed-arch. Two gabled-roof towers of unequal height flank the main entrance, which is placed in a projecting portico with its own roof. The doors are surrounded with mouldings in the form of frequently repeated head-courses. The façade of the portico is supported by three times cut buttresses. Similar buttresses are found on the nave and transept. They are characterized by their emphatic weight, which is further strengthened by the brick cappings. The façades of the gabled-roof towers, transepts, crossing and 'choir' have shoulders with laid brick saddle-back tiles. The rear façade is entirely closed except for a sequence of lancet windows below and a mandorla-shaped window above. Due to the low pitch of the roofs the church gives a squat impression, but through the towers and the tall-drawn crossing the silhouette is very lively.

INTERIOR: The interior is dominated by yellow Friesland stone, enlivened here and there with strips of green glazed stone and a roof structure executed in wood, lit by brightly coloured windows. In the basilical nave the aisles are separated from each other by segmental arches, which rest on short squat columns of polished red Schijlander and capitals of rose Schwarzwald granite. The clerestory has three lancet windows per bay. Above this runs an expressive overhanging moulding. The nave has a roof structure of timber 14 m spanning. The roof trusses rest on emphatically heavy natural stone corbels. The south wall contains, in addition to the entrance, access to two chapels: the baptismal chapel and a chapel dedicated to Mary of Perpetual Help. The chapels have pointed-arch entrances, closed by decorative metalwork. At the top of the wall are climbing lancet windows. A pointed-arch triumphal arch separates the nave from the crossing. The side aisles are relatively narrow. They have brick pointed-arch wall arches and a beam ceiling. There are no pews. They function as circulation spaces and offer access amongst other things to the confessionals and the chapels and form a processional aisle. In the very spacious crossing stands a platform one and a half metres high, on which the altar stands. On three side walls of the platform are the Stations of the Cross applied in opaline technique by Joep Nicolas. The crossing is drawn up higher than the rest and has overhead lighting through sequences of lancet windows filled with coloured glass. The transept arms are as wide as the nave, but the roof structure sets lower. They are lit only by sequences of small windows in the lower zone and in the end walls and are considerably darker than the nave. Behind the platform is a shallow space for the organ and singers. The organ was built in 1941 as opus 132 by L. Verschueren from Heijthuizen. It has an electropneumatic action, two manuals, a free pedal, 10 registers and some playing aids. It is a characteristic, completely unaltered representative of the 'Orgelbewegung' and has as such rarity value. The open case has a contoured pipe field, which leaves a mandorla-shaped window in the rear wall free and forms an inseparable element in the total concept of the church space. On either side of the choir space are chapels with stained-glass windows by Nicolas.

FURNISHINGS ETC. The liturgical inventory has been preserved almost entirely and underwent only minor alterations, such as the relocation of the tabernacle. In the nave and transept arms are simple blocks of pews with a centre aisle. In the tower hangs a bell by Petit and Fritsen from 1949, as a replacement for a specimen stolen by the occupier and has no monumental value.

Assessment:

Church of general architectural-historical, cultural-historical and liturgical-historical importance:

- because of the architecture, which links together traditional and various other influences;

- because of the far-reaching degree of preservation of exterior and interior;

- because of the special liturgical disposition of the church with the altar on a platform in the crossing and wide aisles according to Christocentric ideas and the location and execution of the Stations of the Cross;

- because of the organ, an intact representative of the 'Orgelbewegung', which as such has rarity value. This is further strengthened by the open case, which forms an inseparable unity with the total concept of the church interior;

- because of its location on a remnant of a square and the coherence with rectory and former school with convent.