The Grote Kerk of

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after Ro ...

, officially the Church of Our Lady ('' Dutch: Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk'', or ''Grote Kerk'') is a large church in the Brabantine Gothic style, and the largest church in the city. It was built between 1284 and 1470, though some parts are newer. It became a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

church in 1572, and remains an active church, now owned by the

Protestant Church in the Netherlands The Protestant Church in the Netherlands ( nl, de Protestantse Kerk in Nederland, abbreviated PKN) is the largest Protestant denomination in the Netherlands, being both Calvinist and Lutheran. It was founded on 1 May 2004 as the merger of the v ...

History

Early records of the church are scarce. A chapel in Dordrecht is mentioned in a chapter of 1122, although the exact date of when the church was established is unknown. In 1986, excavations in the church uncovered the remains of a thirteenth-century Romanesque apse belonging to the previous building, with the interior being 9 meters in width. The oldest standing part of the church is the 'Mariakoor', or ''St. Mary's Quire'', built between 1284 and 1285. Dordrecht Grote Kerk Onze Lieve Vrouwe Innen Chor 4

Dordrecht Grote Kerk Onze Lieve Vrouwe Innen Chor 4

In 1367, the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities ...

of Our Lady was elevated to the status of a

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over b ...

, and the Romanesque building was demolished. On June 29, 1457, a fire, which started in Kleine Spruistraat, spread quickly to other streets causing massive destruction, and the church was severely damaged. Everaert Spoorwater, an architect from the southern Netherlands, led the reconstruction in the Brabantine Gothic style. The ceiling mostly consists of

rib vault A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic ...

s, except for the Mariakoor which contains a lierne vault. The choir stalls were made between 1538 and 1542. The church was ransacked by the Geuzen in 1572, when the building was whitewashed, the statues destroyed, and the altars desecrated. The building was converted into a Protestant church and it remains one today.

Tower and Clock

The tower was originally begun in 1339, however it was severely damaged, along with the church, in the city fire of 1457. Originally meant to be capped with a stone octagon and spire (similar to Utrecht Cathedral), due to the soft Dutch soil causing the tower to lean, it was left unfinished by 1506. The tower was restored from 1953 to 1973, when subsidence was halted. In 1626, it was capped with four Baroque clock faces, and a small roof. The clock mechanism was made by Jan Janszoon in 1624. It was converted into a pendulum clock in 1663 The tower contains 275 steps to the top, and for a small fee can be climbed by visitors.

Bells

The bells of the current building are first mentioned in 1460, and there are currently 67 bells. In 1966 a carillon was gifted to the church, hanging alongside a medieval bell of 1460 dedicated to St. John. 6 of the carillon bells can be swung including the bourdon, the largest swinging bell in the Netherlands, weighing 10 tons (9830 kilograms) and cast by Eijsbouts in 1999. The bells can be rung both by hand (with ropes) and electronically (with motors). In 2020, the church installed ten additional bells hung for

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memo ...

, which are the first peal of change ringing church bells in the Netherlands, and the heaviest such peal in mainland Europe. The lightest six bells were newly cast for the church in 2020, by Emanuele Allanconi of

Crema, Italy Crema (; Cremasco: ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Cremona, in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is built along the river Serio at from Cremona. It is also the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Crema, who gave the title of ...

. The heaviest four bells came from the redundant church of St. Mary, Harrogate, England and were cast by

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...

in 1915.

Gallery

File:Van Ruysdael, Salomon, View of Dordrecht, ca. 1660.jpg, Salomon van Ruysdael, ''View of Dordrecht'', ca. 1660, showing the church dominating the city skyline File:Brooklyn Museum - Dordrecht, the Grote Kerk from the Canal - Eugène Louis Boudin - overall.jpg, Brooklyn Museum - Dordrecht, the Grote Kerk from the Canal - Eugène Louis Boudin - overall

References

{{Coord, 51, 48, 51, N, 4, 39, 36, E, region:NL_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Rijksmonuments in Dordrecht Churches in South Holland Protestant churches in the Netherlands Protestant churches converted from Roman Catholicism