Kerk, Huylckensteinstrjitte 4

English translation

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Description

Introduction

Complex comprising the REFORMED CHURCH with adjoining SACRISTY and associated CHURCHYARD with IRONWORK on RETAINING WALL.

Robust village church, consisting of a heavily patched tufa stone nave from the 12th century, adjoined by a semicircular enclosed choir of large format yellow brickwork from the 13th century. In the 15th century the windows were renewed in Gothic style and a sacristy was built on the north side. In 1854 the dilapidated tower was demolished and rebuilt, partly using the old stone. Repair of the tower took place in 1902. The choir would contain (remains of) overpainted frescoes.

The church stands on a raised CHURCHYARD with traditional upright and recumbent gravestones, which are of local importance. On the high mortared yellow and red brick RETAINING WALL with yellow brick steps stands a (partly renewed) second half of 19th century cast iron IRONWORK consisting of bars between pine-cone-topped fence standards.

Description

Seven-bay church building, consisting of a heavily repaired 12th-century tufa stone nave with 13th-century semicircular enclosed yellow brick choir; the whole covered by slates (Maas covering) a three-sided closed hipped roof at the choir side with (renewed in 1971) roof turret with copper weathervane against square tower from 1854, likewise with copper weathervane; lead-clad stone pyramid; gutter on corbels; iron rod wall anchors. The north gable articulated by pointed arch and round arch windows with wooden tracery; brick bands. Early Gothic corbel arch entrance doorway (Norseman's doorway) of dressed brick (with later brick infill; c. 1750). In the south gable the same type of windows and bands; renaissance doorway constructed of brick with sandstone blocks and likewise keystone with cherub head and incised dating 1665; (renewed) double wooden entrance door. Choir section with blind arcading and small pointed arch window with wooden tracery.

Against the west gable lies the two-storey SACRISTY, which is constructed of yellow brick and is covered by a saddle roof with blue glazed tiles with stack chimneys (15th century; interior renewed 1854, on which occasion the vaults were removed under a ceiling); six-pane windows, some with wooden shutters; clamped entrance door with fanlight with carved work; gutter on corbels. Below the sacristy there is still the oven in which the charcoal for the foot stoves was heated.

The TOWER (according to memorial stones built in 1854 and renewed in 1902) under slate roof (Maas covering) spire with iron weathervane and ball (with initials and date 1763), is constructed of red brick and comprises three square sections with spandrels; round windows; simple clock faces with Roman numerals; bell openings; iron wall anchors. In the tower a wooden bell frame with a chime consisting of two bells, one made by Wilhelm Wegewart in 1576 and one by Hans Falck in 1621 and a mechanical timepiece from 1902, made by G. de Looze, horologist in Leeuwarden.

In the INTERIOR of the church, renewed in 1753-54, which is covered by an early 16th-century wooden barrel vault with moulded ribs, collar ties with corbels and wall posts, the following components are notably: the mid-18th-century oak wainscoting with cornice of the entrance, the mid-18th-century men's, women's and poor benches (the latter with backrests from c. 1935), the straight hooded gentlemen's bench with small columns and carved work from 1604 (coats of arms hacked off c. 1795), the richly carved pulpit with stairs, backboard and sounding board (1753 and presumably made by carpenter/miller Wiebe Harmens from Oosterlittens); the brass lectern and the brass baptismal font (1756), the baptismal gate and two mid-18th-century brass crowns (with allegorical figures on the stems). Furthermore a wooden memorial board from 1804 painted with Louis XIV ornament, a wooden mourning board Hettingha (1664) and a wooden mourning board Albada van Hettema (1695), six mid-18th-century psalm boards and some 17th and 18th-century gravestones.

The organ, in carved case, with Hauptwerk and Oberwerk, was made in 1867 by W. Hardorff and stands on a balustrade resting on two marbled columns with leaf capitals and two slender cast iron columns with similar capital.

Valuation

Church building with churchyard (of which the gravestones are of local importance) and ironwork of general importance:

- by reason of age

- by reason of building history;

- by reason of architectural form;

- by reason of valuable interior components;

- by reason of the distinctive raised location.