The Great Church or St. James' Church (in Dutch, ''Grote Kerk'' or ''Sint-Jacobskerk'', ) is a landmark

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

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The building is located on the Torenstraat, named for its high tower. Together with the

Binnenhof The Binnenhof (; en, Inner Court) is a complex of buildings in the city centre of The Hague, Netherlands, next to the Hofvijver lake. It houses the meeting place of both houses of the States General of the Netherlands, as well as the Ministry ...

, it is one of the oldest buildings in The Hague. Members of the

House of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau ( Dutch: ''Huis van Oranje-Nassau'', ) is the current reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the politics and government of the Netherland ...

have been baptised and married there. The latest are

Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born ) is King of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne following his mother's abdication in 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht as the oldest child of Princess B ...

and his daughter Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange.

History

The Great, or St. James' Church, was founded in the late 13th century, probably as a wooden church. The present church was built in stages, between the 14th and 16th century. First in the year 1337 sources speak of the “great church” (Dutch: ''grote kercke''), which is a typical historical indication of a brick structure. It has a fine vaulted interior, and contains some old stained glass, a carved wooden pulpit (1550), a large organ and interesting sepulchral monuments, and 34 escutcheons of the knights of the

Order of the Golden Fleece The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece ( es, Insigne Orden del Toisón de Oro, german: Orden vom Goldenen Vlies) is a Catholic order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1430, to celebrate his marriag ...

, placed here after the chapter of 1456. During excavations in 2009 archeologists determined that some basement walls were built with bricks which they could date between the year 1320 and 1350. Documents from the year 1399, referring to maintenance work on the church, show that by then the church was a brick construction. The stone church was originally built as a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

church. In the facade adjacent to the tower, there are still traces of the roof line of 1424. They show a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

with two lower aisles. Between 1434 and 1455, both lower aisles were broadened and raised to the roof level of the nave, consequently losing the cross shape. This expansion made the St. James Church of The Hague the first example in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

of the so-called “Hague Hall church”, a type of hall church. From that time onwards, this type of church would be applied on a larger scale, especially in the County of Holland. The church is remarkable for its fine tower and chime of bells, and contains the cenotaph monument of Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam, designed and sculpted by

Bartholomeus Eggers Bartholomeus Eggers (c. 1637Bartholomeus Eggers
at the

in 1667,Scholten, Frits. “De Apotheose Van De Held: Bartholomeus Eggers En Het Monument Voor Jacob Van Wassenaer Obdam in Den Haag, 1667.”
Oud Holland, vol. 109, no. 1/2, 1995, pp. 63–88. JSTOR. Accessed 14 Apr. 2021 and the renaissance tomb of Gerrit van Assendelft (1487 - 1558). Also notable is the late

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

tomb of

Philip, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal Philip of Hesse-Philippsthal (14 December 1655 – 18 June 1721) was the son of William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Hedwig Sophia of Brandenburg. He was the first landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal from 1663 to 1721 and the founder of the ...

and his wive Catherine of Solms-Laubach, designed by Daniel Marot in 1721. The church's six-sided tower was finished between 1420 and 1424. The tower, tall, is one of the tallest in the Netherlands. There are 34 panels with shields and names of knights of the golden fleece.

Rijksmonument A rijksmonument (, ) is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. At the end of February 2015, the Netherlands ...

report The richly carved wooden pulpit was made in 1550. The mechanical clock has 15 bells by M. de Haze in 1686, one by Jasper and Jan Moer from 1541, one from H. Van Trier from 1570, one by Coenraat Wegewaert from 1647, and one from C. Fremy from 1692 and 31 modern bells. In the church tower there is an automatic

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoni ...

by Libertus van den Burgh, from 1689. In the tower the mechanical clock was installed in 1927. The clock with drum by Heynrick Vabrie that was used from 1541 to 1689 is kept in the museum 'Speelklok' in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. The church endured a fire in 1539, and the stained glass windows were repaired by leading glass artists, including the brothers Dirk and Wouter Crabeth of Gouda.website "Stichting Grote Kerk Den Haag" - Bezienswaardigheden

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain ( Castile and Aragon) fr ...

, who visited the church after the fire, sponsored two windows by the Crabeths that, probably because of their royal origin, are the only two windows that have survived up to the present day. Under one of these windows lies a commemorative stone from 1857 for Constantijn and

Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , , ; also spelled Huyghens; la, Hugenius; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor, who is regarded as one of the greatest scientists o ...

, who were buried in unmarked graves in the choir of the church. Some notable people buried in the church are Count John Albert I of Solms-Braunfels, a cousin of

William the Silent William the Silent (24 April 153310 July 1584), also known as William the Taciturn (translated from nl, Willem de Zwijger), or, more commonly in the Netherlands, William of Orange ( nl, Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch Re ...

, who died in exile (buried in 1623),

Rombout Hogerbeets Rombout Hogerbeets (Hoorn, 24 June 1561 — Wassenaar, 7 September 1625) was a Dutch jurist and statesman. He was tried for treason, together with Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Hugo Grotius, and Gilles van Ledenberg during the political crisis of ...

, Dutch statesman (1625), Anthonie Duyck (in 1629), Grand Pensionary of Holland, Louis of Nassau, Lord of De Lek and Beverweerd, an illegitimate son of Maurice, Prince of Orange (in 1665), Gaspar Fagel (1668), Grand Pensionary of Holland, Lieuwe van Aitzema, a famous spy for England during the First and Second Anglo-Dutch War (buried in 1669), field marshal René de Cordeux, Marquess of Langey, a grandson of

Louise de Coligny Louise de Coligny (23 September 1555 – 9 November 1620) was a Princess consort of Orange as the fourth and last spouse of William the Silent. She was the daughter of Gaspard II de Coligny and Charlotte de Laval. Biography Louise was born at ...

(1712), Daniel Marot, architect (1752), Countess Anna Isabella of Nassau-LaLecq (1765), Count

Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer Unico Wilhelm, Count van Wassenaer Obdam (30 October 1692 – 9 November 1766) was a Dutch nobleman who was a diplomat as well as a composer. He reorganized the Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order. His most important surviving compositions a ...

, diplomat and composer (1766), and

Hieronymus van Alphen Hieronymus van Alphen (8 August 1746 in Gouda – 2 April 1803 in The Hague), a jurist in Utrecht, Leiden and The Hague, is especially remembered as a poet, particularly for his poems for children under the title ''Kleine gedigten voor kinder ...

, poet (1803). Interieur, overzicht van de westgevel met het orgel - 's-Gravenhage - 20384853 - RCE.jpg, Main entrance with the organ by

Metzler Orgelbau Metzler Orgelbau, a firm of organ builders founded in 1890 and based since 1933 in Dietikon, near Zurich in Switzerland, is one of the most important makers of the European classical organ revival and has built many important and respected ins ...

WLM - roel1943 - Automatisch carillon Haagsetoren.jpg, Carillon WLM - roel1943 - Grote of Sint Jacobskerk.jpg, Painted wooden ceiling and bottom of chandelier Den Haag Grote Kerk Sint Jacob Innen Grabmal Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam 7.jpg, Monument for Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam by

Bartholomeus Eggers Bartholomeus Eggers (c. 1637Bartholomeus Eggers
at the

INTERIEUR, OVERZICHT GRAFMONUMENT VAN GERRIT VAN ASSENDELFT - 's-Gravenhage - 20262344 - RCE.jpg, Tomb of Gerrit van Assendelft Den Haag; Grote- of St-Jacobskerk nb.jpg, Tomb of Philip of Hesse-Philippsthal

Church function

The church is formally owned by the City of The Hague and is managed by the "Stichting Grote Kerk Den Haag", which conducts restoration activities and rents it for concerts, but also facilitates various cultural initiatives of the city.

References

External links

* Bell towers in the Netherlands Carillons Churches in The Hague Rijksmonuments in The Hague Towers in The Hague Protestant churches converted from Roman Catholicism Protestant churches in the Netherlands {{Tallest buildings in the Netherlands