The Heilige Lodewijkkerk, also called the St. Louis Church, is a
Roman Catholic church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
at the Steenschuur in
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
.
History
The first church on this place was built in 1477 and was a chapel, the St. James Chapel, belonging to a guesthouse for pilgrims on their way to
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...
. This chapel was therefore dedicated to
St. James the Great. The front facade of the church was built in 1538. The tower, which is still called the Saint James Tower, was built in 1594 and its carillon was built in 1598.
The chapel and the guesthouse were sold in 1547 to the parish of the Pieterskerk and in 1567 to the municipality of
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
. The municipality of
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
used the chapel first to store cereal and afterwards to test textiles.
The explosion of 1807
The history of the present Heilige Lodewijkkerk is tightly linked to the nearby explosion of a ship with
gun powder in 1807. The explosion destroyed a large part of the city center including a catholic church at the Nieuwe Rijn. The St. James Chapel that was used to test textile was heavily damaged, but the tower was still intact. King
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French cl ...
, also known as Lodewijk Napoleon ordered that the chapel would be rebuilt into a church for the Catholics who used to go to the church at the Nieuwe Rijn. The church was designed by Jan Giudici. Afterwards the church was dedicated to
Saint Louis, known as Heilige Lodewijk in
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
, who was the patron saint of
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French cl ...
.
Current use
Since 1957 the church is used by the Parochie Heilige Lodewijk. Every day
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
is celebrated. The church is known for its traditional
liturgy in
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
, English and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
.
Pictures from inside
Church Leiden Lodewijk 2.JPG
Church Leiden Lodewijkkerk 4.JPG
Church Leiden Lodewijkkerk 3.JPG
References
External links
Official webpage of the church
{{Catholic Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands
1477 establishments
Lodewijkkerk
Tourist attractions in South Holland
Rijksmonuments in Leiden
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1477
Roman Catholic churches in the Netherlands
15th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the Netherlands