Hildegardiskerk

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, component of the St. Hildegardiskerk church complex. The church was built in two phases: between 1890-1892 the choir, transept as well as one bay of the nave were completed according to the design of E.J. Margry. In 1905 the remaining four bays were completed.

N.B. The spire on the crossing of the church has been removed, as has the fencing around the church. The wrought-iron cross and the copper weathervane have blown away from the front tower spire. The interior, which has largely retained the original style, has undergone some modifications over the years. After the Second World War the baptismal chapel on the north side of the church was arranged as a Maria chapel. In 1965 the priest's choir was adapted according to the Second Vatican Council. In 1985-86 the Hildegardis chapel was converted into a daily and baptismal chapel. In 1913 the harmonium by the singing gallery was replaced by an organ, specially built for the church by the firm Maarschalkerweerd & Zoon in Utrecht. The instrument has two manuals and a free pedal and was built according to the mechanical system with electric wind supply. This instrument is not worthy of protection by the state.

Description

Three-aisled cruciform basilica with a monumental entrance porch with front tower. The entire church is constructed above a natural stone plinth in red brick with natural stone voussoirs, roof cornices, window surrounds, archvolts, blocks and decorations. The church has a shallow cellar with mortared barrel vaults. The various saddle roofs, lean-to roofs and pitched roofs are covered with slate. The facades are provided with mortared buttresses, pilasters and string courses. The doors and windows are of wood. The pointed arch windows have brick window tracery in rayonnant style. The cross of the church is formed by a nave of five bays in front of the transept and two bays to the east thereof, where the church is five aisles wide and is closed off by a five-sided presbytery. On the ground floor here is an arcade of blind round arches. The leftmost arch provides access to the sacristy. Above this on each facade side four coupled pointed arch-shaped blind windows and above this only on the three middle sides a high trefoil arch window with stained glass. In the western part of the central nave a spacious gallery, which originally provided space for over 900 seats. At the end of the transept there are on either side two confessionals behind profiled dark wooden doors. In the exterior the west front draws the most attention. Here is located the entrance porch with an octagonal front tower flanked by two small tower stairs. Central at the base of the front tower is the main entrance, formed by a portal with pointed gable and saddle roof. Against the pointed arch-shaped day-edges are corbels with simple capitals. Within this a wide double wooden door with diamond-block-shaped cassettes, above which a pointed arch window with rayonnant tracery and stained glass. The entrance is flanked by buttresses. The edges of the pointed gable are set off with natural stone and run through to the point in a natural stone tympanum with an abstracted angel figure, crowned with a natural stone cross. On the 'shoulders' of the gable are simple natural stone crockets. In the facade plane above the entrance portal is a large pointed arch window with centrally in the rayonnant tracery a rose window with stained glass. Above this the facade is closed off by a tympanum-shaped front with blind recesses in Gothic manner and in the middle crowned by a small stepped gable with between two pilasters a small blind round opening. The front tower has in the bell storey arch-shaped sound holes and a natural stone balustrade. The eight sides of the equally octagonal spire are crowned at the base by a 'collar' of eight pointed gables, provided with crockets at the point. The spire was originally crowned by a copper cross with weathervane. The stair turrets are round only at the top and are provided with a dentil course just below the roof edge. The pitched roofs of the turrets are crowned with copper finials. In the upper round part of the turrets are three composite three-light windows. Below this, in the octagonal lower section, is only in the front facade plane a narrow pointed arch window. The first bays of the side aisles are on either side of the tower built higher and provided with hipped roofs. The west facades of these extensions are provided at the top with a strip consisting of six round arch windows. At the ends of these facades is a buttress. The north and south facade is provided with a high pointed arch window with stained glass running through into a dormer. Between this higher built aisle section and the transept are five buttresses under a lean-to roof with a small dormer provided with a pitched roof. On the west side, in the angle that the southern transept makes with the central nave, is an entrance gate of natural stone with a tympanum-shaped front and a double profiled wooden door with wrought-iron decorative fittings. On this side, between the east side of the transept and the west side of the presbytery, is a rectangular devotional chapel in honour of St. Hildegard. This was originally accessible via its own entrance on the Verbraakstraat.

The interior of the church has plastered pillars and wall fields, which were originally painted with stencils. The pointed arches, the ringed corbels and window surrounds are executed in exposed brickwork. The central nave is covered with a wooden barrel vault in Tudor arch form with profiled wooden tie beams, whose boarding supported on brackets and purlins is simply polychromed. At the eastern end of the central nave, above the presbytery, is a fresco with an image of St. Hildegard healing a blind boy, surrounded by white lilies. At the western end is the organ gallery, behind a low balustrade of blind recesses. The choir area and the side aisles are vaulted with mortared cross vaults. The walls of the nave are constructed from three zones. The first zone consists of arcade arches on natural stone columns. The triforium zone above this has three pointed arch recesses per bay. The third zone is formed by the clerestory. In the walls of the side aisles of the nave are painted on copper plates the Stations of the Cross by the artist H.Bogaerts from Boxtel. On the side panels of the stations, except the last two, are depicted figures from the Old and New Testament. In the eighth station, right at the back of the church, to the left of the head of Christ is depicted the likeness of Pastor C.A. Hammer, the first pastor of the church. In the twenties two paintings were made by the 's-Hertogenbosch artist Frans Kops at the front of the church, above both side entrances, respectively on the right a representation of Christ appearing in the temple and on the left the Rider on the White Horse from the Book of Revelation. In the church is still preserved the original polychrome tile floor with acanthus motifs and are still partially the original church pews. The current Maria chapel on the north-west side of the church, consists of a white plastered five-sided apse with, central in the middle facade plane, a blind recess with a wooden image of Maria and Child by the artist Sprenger. The flanking round arch windows contain coloured stained glass. The Hildegardis chapel has on the east side a recess with three high pointed arch windows provided with simple stained glass. The white marble altar with at the 'foot end' an equally white marble sculpture of St. Hildegardis on her deathbed. The image is soberly decorated with Art Nouveau flower motifs and was donated at the beginning of this century by the Rotterdam family Jamin. The richly with pinnacles decorated oak wooden pulpit (1868, Roermond workshop) with representations of the four evangelists originates from the demolished St. Eusebiuskerk in Arnhem.

Evaluation

Roman Catholic church St. Hildegardis with well-preserved interior of general importance from an architectural and cultural-historical point of view, as well as of importance because of urban planning value. The church moreover occupies an important position within the oeuvre of the architects E.J. Margry and J.M. Snickers.