Klooster, Hoogstraat 80

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.

Centrally situated on the site is the main building of the BENEDICTINE MONASTERY. The monastery was constructed principally in three building phases, namely 1906, 1908-1910 and 1919-1920. The prior of Wisques consecrated the (first) building on 19 September 1906. Monk-architect Paul Bellot designed it according to the principle of the 'golden section' in a late Neo-Gothic and Art Deco style. Contractor Martens carried out the work. To the artistic decoration of the interior (including paintings, sculpture, stained-glass windows) a contribution was made in particular by the monks Jacques van der Meij, François Mes and H. Louwerse. Originally architect Vilain (Lille) was to build the monastery. From his preliminary design Bellot adopted the orientation of monastery and church, the disposition of the wings around a cloister courtyard, the overall dimensions of the building components and a phased implementation plan. Of the later extensions two are particularly noteworthy. First an addition to the former CHAPTER HOUSE, dating from 1930 and designed in late Neo-Gothic style. This is the first realised architectural design by monk-architect Hans van der Laan. The work was carried out by contractor Martens. Second the HOSPITIUM (guest accommodation) from 1938-1939, likewise a creation of Hans van der Laan in collaboration with his brother Nico, still predominantly designed under the influence of the ideas of the Delft school. The guest accommodation is the first building realised according to the theory of 'ground proportion' developed by Van der Laan and thus stands at the foundation of a new movement that would later become known as the 'Bossche School'. Brother Cornelis designed the front door. Contractor B. de Bont from Nieuwkuik carried out the work. Through the addition of the hospitium, the main entrance originally situated on the west side came to be located on the north side. In 1985 a terrace was laid out for the western wing. Over the years the monastery has only been altered or modernised in a few components.

Description.

The brick monastery building, consisting of four irregular wings around an inner courtyard with surrounding galleries, has a square-shaped ground plan at its core. The cloister galleries are only two-aisled in the north and west. In the various wings are found among other things a former sacristy, chapter house, stairwell and former scriptorium (east wing); a refectory (south wing); the central stairwell, a former guest accommodation, library and former main entrance with porter's lodge and reception rooms (west wing) and a former nave with now separated priest's choir from 1919-1920 (north wing). On the upper storeys among other things the novitiate and many monastic cells. Small rooms disappeared. On the interior side the traditional cloister of four galleries around an inner courtyard. At the south-west corner a substantial corner extension on an approximately rectangular ground plan (kitchen, scullery, toilets, guest accommodation, cells) and on the east facade and the north-west corner two extensions (extension of chapter house from 1930 and new guest accommodation from 1938-39), both on rectangular ground plan.

The various, partly cellared components comprise one to four storeys, mostly with an additional attic storey, mainly under gabled roofs, but also under tent roofs and mansard roofs or flat roofs. Heights of roof ridges and roof edges vary. Roofs covered with curved pantiles, Tuile-du-nord tiles, improved Dutch tiles and bituminous roof coverings with gravel. On the roofs several decoratively built chimneys, various stone roof dormers with pointed arch windows under adjoining gabled roof dormers with wind-vanes, and various roof lights. Remarkable bell tower under gabled roof on the roof ridge of a cloister gallery at the inner courtyard. Simple, projecting gutters or gutters on corbels. The monastery, built in Flemish bond, was designed on the basis of a standard bay of 3.60 metres.

Besides the cubic arrangement of the various components, the exterior is articulated by the use of slightly projecting spout gables, a partly continuous plinth with courses of glazed brick, tapering buttresses and (top) pilasters, large (blind) wall niches and casements, various arch friezes, and friezes with decorative brickwork and denticulation just below the roof edge. The masonry is enlivened by the application of coloured brick and stone for among other things decorative brickwork, (continuous) lintels and (drip) sills, voussoirs, coping and crowning courses. In the facades a remarkable large variety of openings, both straight-headed and under pointed and obtuse arches, diagonal, basket, segmental and round arches, in relation to the varying functions of the spaces. Wooden and steel, sometimes chamfered frames, mostly with composite windows featuring geometric glazing bars. Various stained-glass windows. In the western library wing, in a projecting volume at the far right, under a roof ridge that projects there and with a gable against an adjoining gabled roof, the central stairwell is clearly recognisable.

The three-storey corner kitchen extension in the south-west is terminated and crowned with a richly decorated and partly projecting four-storey tower. Tent roof and gable with adjoining gabled roof.

In the corner formed by this extension and the south wing stands an octagonal stair tower, partly embedded in the main mass, with richly decorated head. On the storey of the south wing (containing among other things the refectory) at the far left is the richly decorated spout gable of the abbot's chapel with five coupled diagonal arch windows. At the far right of the south facade the projecting corner volume of the east wing. Gable crowned with coupled spout gables.

Approximately in the middle of the east wing is a right-angled three-storey extension originally two bays wide in which the former chapter house is located, extended in 1930 by Hans van der Laan by a further two bays and built up to four storeys plus an attic storey under a gabled roof. In the continuation of the roof ridge, on the side of the cloister courtyard, is a Flemish gable built in half-timbering under a gabled roof with a lower ridge line than the aforementioned extension. To the left of the extension is a clearly recognisable stairwell with spout gable crowning. To the right, on the corner of the east and north facades, is the sanctuary, entirely designed in Art Deco style, from 1919-1920. Richly decorated facades with climbing diagonal arch windows and parapets with stylised crenellations between richly decorated corner towers and a bell tower. The remaining north wing section consists among other things of the three bays long, former nave with blind wall niches on the north but glazed openings on the side of the cloister courtyard. Lower pseudo-side aisles on the north side, interrupted in the middle by the connecting gallery placed perpendicular to it, falling outside the protected building, leading to the monastery church of Sluymer from 1956. Furthermore a single-storey connecting section under a flat roof to the west wing and to the hospitium of Hans and Nico van der Laan realised on the north-west corner in 1938-1939. This cellared guest accommodation has a rectangular ground plan and comprises two storeys plus an attic storey under a gabled roof partly flattened and covered with muffled improved Dutch tiles. Sober gutter on block-shaped corbels. The six-bay wide facades, built in Flemish bond, are divided horizontally by three rows of windows one above the other: small straight-headed cellar lights along the facade, round arch windows and entrance portico on the ground floor and remarkably high situated coupled windows with dividing column between continuous lintels and sills just below the roof edge. Entrance portico in the north facade under a brick round arch on stone ashlar. Stone steps flanked by curved wrought-iron railings. Double door with elegant ironwork and ingenious lock by brother Cornelus. Remaining facades with similar detailing.

The facades of the cloister galleries around the reorganised inner courtyard are each three bays long. Per bay two coupled, pointed arch windows with steel lattice between and above which is a backer in a arched frame with profiled V-shaped point on the underside. In the heart of the inner courtyard a natural stone cross on a slender, tapering base.

The interior is fairly well preserved. The walls are internally mostly built in fair-faced masonry. Some rooms, such as various corridors on the upper storeys, are whitewashed. The spaces are articulated by a large variety of pointed and round belt, partition and wall arches, some resting on brick pillars. Furthermore segmental arches and decoratively executed diagonal arches occur frequently. Also many blind arch niches. The spaces are spanned in various ways. Often this is done by flat wooden ceilings mostly with a beam ceiling or coffered ceiling (such as in the stairwell). A remarkably richly decorated wooden ceiling is found in the abbot's chapel. Furthermore there are flat concrete ceilings (cellars), wooden gabled roofs (cloister galleries) and some striking vaults. Among these the kitchen vault, consisting of double, flattened cross-ribs with vault cells placed diagonally between them with ribs, followed by descending brick arches and ribs as a sort of pendentives. Furthermore especially the polychrome cross vault in the former priest's choir are noteworthy and the ingenious glazed vault in the former nave which, resting on the articulating belt arches, spans the space in steps. Of the floors noteworthy are: terrazzo floors in most of the rooms on the ground floor, wooden parquet floors, variously coloured tile floors and the natural stone floor in the guest accommodation.

The masonry is enlivened especially by the use of variously coloured brick, stone and moulded stone for application in among other things courses and course blocks, decorative brickwork, voussoirs and corbels. Subtle use of dark mortar joint. Of the interior specially noteworthy are: the very rich abbot's chapel, detailed as a 'Gesamtkunstwerk', with wall paintings by François Mes; the former nave and the kitchen with the aforementioned vaults; the artisanally skilfully built cloister galleries and the central stairwell; the former priest's choir with elegantly pierced walls and vault; the octagonal stair tower with decorative roof truss structure and carved ornament; furthermore among other things various elegantly chamfered wooden wing doors with ornamental wrought-iron fittings, some polychrome wall paintings and stained-glass windows and the furnishings with various sacred sculptures, largely of own making.

On the ground floor of the guest accommodation added in 1938-1939 are an entrance hall with porter's lodge, some toilets and five reception rooms on either side of a central corridor, all in fair-faced masonry. Detailing partly as in the main building. On the correspondingly laid out, whitewashed storey are eight guest rooms on either side of the corridor situated. Sober rooms with beam ceilings and arched wall niches with stone window sills.

Valuation.

The Benedictine monastery is of general interest. The object possesses cultural-historical values as a special expression of a cultural, spiritual and economic development, namely the establishment of new, largely self-sufficient monastic communities in the early twentieth century—in this case as a result of the French Law on Associations—and the crises of the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties. Furthermore on account of the importance of the typology for the development of monastery buildings. The object has architectural and art-historical values. It is of great importance on account of the significance of the architectural theories applied, building styles employed and constructions for the history of architecture and building technique. Furthermore on account of the particular importance of the main building—as the first large-scale design—for the oeuvre of architect Paul Bellot, of the extension of the former chapter house—as a first work—and the new guest accommodation—as a directing building within a new architectural movement—for the oeuvre of architect Hans van der Laan. Furthermore on account of the high aesthetic qualities of the architectural designs in combination with the artisanally skilled masonry and the very detailed ornamentation. The object possesses ensemble values together with the other objects belonging to Sint Paulus Abbey and the monasteries located within the 'Holy Triangle' as an essential part of a historically developed religious ensemble. The object is of importance on account of the integrity of exterior and interior.