Cathedral of Saint Bavo
Encyclopedia
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, built by the Catholics
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
from 1895 to 1930 to replace the former Waterstaatskerk St. Joseph
St. Joseph Kerk (Haarlem)
The St. Joseph kerk is a church dating from the 19th century on the Jansstraat in Haarlem, Netherlands. It is located across from the Janskerk .-History:...
. That church was itself a replacement for the Sint-Bavokerk
Sint-Bavokerk
The Grote Kerk or St.-Bavokerk is a Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square in the Dutch city of Haarlem...
, that had been converted to Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
from Catholicism in 1578. The Cathedral of Saint Bavo now serves as the main cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam. Within the Cathedral, the former sacristy
Sacristy
A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...
has been converted into a small museum (schatkamer) containing historical artefacts from Haarlem's Catholic past.
History of the collection
Velsen
Velsen is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is located on both sides of the North Sea Canal.On the north side of the North Sea Canal, in IJmuiden, there is a major steel plant, Corus Strip Products IJmuiden, formerly known as Koninklijke Hoogovens...
, which itself was founded in 695 by St. Willibrord. It was a wooden church at the site of the current Grote Kerk
Sint-Bavokerk
The Grote Kerk or St.-Bavokerk is a Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square in the Dutch city of Haarlem...
on the Grote Markt (central market square). That church was expanded over the centuries and became formally a cathedral in 1559 when the first bishop Nicolaas van Nieuwland
Nicolaas van Nieuwland
Nicolaas van Nieuwland was bishop of Haarlem and abbot of Egmond Abbey from 1562 to 1569.-Biography:Van Nieuwland became bishop when he was still young. He became titular bishop of Hebron in 1541...
was appointed. Only 19 years later, after the Siege of Haarlem
Siege of Haarlem
The siege of Haarlem was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. From December 11, 1572 to July 13, 1573 an army of Philip II of Spain laid bloody siege to the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands, whose loyalties had begun wavering during the previous summer...
, the church was confiscated and converted to Protestantism as part of the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. At this time most of the art and silver artefacts were also seized and what has survived is now in the collection of the Frans Hals Museum
Frans Hals Museum
The Frans Hals Museum is a hofje and municipal museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. The museum was founded in 1862 in the newly renovated former cloister located in the back of the Haarlem city hall known as the Prinsenhof...
. The Haarlem Catholics took what they could carry with them and went underground. Since the Netherlands was officially no longer a Catholic nation, the underground Catholic places of worship were no longer called churches or kerken, but mission station
Mission Station
Mission Station is the eastern terminus station on the West Coast Express commuter rail line connecting Vancouver to Mission, British Columbia, Canada. The station is located on the north side of the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks in Mission on North Railway Avenue. The station opened in 1995,...
s or staties. It is unknown how many staties existed in Haarlem at the end of the seventeenth century, but since town records show that these underground churches were tolerated and taxed by the Haarlem council in the eighteenth century, we can be certain that at least seven had more than 300 attendees for mass.
The various artefacts that survived from the Reformation, as well as from other defunct Haarlem catholic collections, have thus found their way into the collection and are now in the schatkamer, such as a 17th century painting of the patron saint Bavo and silver from the chapel of Louis Napoleon, who resided for more than a decade at Villa Welgelegen
Villa Welgelegen
Villa Welgelegen is a historical building in Haarlem, the Netherlands, which currently houses the offices of the provincial executives of North Holland. Located at the north end of a public park in the city, it is an example of neoclassical architecture, unusual for its style in the...
. The most famous items in the collection are on display in the choir in glass display cases; these are the old chasuble
Chasuble
The chasuble is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christian Churches that use full vestments, primarily in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, as well as in some parts of the United Methodist Church...
s, dalmatic
Dalmatic
The dalmatic is a long wide-sleeved tunic, which serves as a liturgical vestment in the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and United Methodist Churches, which is sometimes worn by a deacon at the Mass or other services. Although infrequent, it may also be worn by bishops above the alb and below...
s, and surplice
Surplice
A surplice is a liturgical vestment of the Western Christian Church...
s of the Haarlem clergy, richly embroidered, and showing popular Catholic themes. The French ones are probably also from the Louis Napoleon period, but the earliest are Flemish in origin and date back to the early 16th century.
History of the building
Since 1853 the church of St. Joseph served as a cathedral but it proved to be too small almost immediately, despite enlargements. Bishop Bottemanne started the planning for building a new cathedral in 1893, which was to serve as a cathedral as well as a parish church. The original intention was to ask Pierre CuypersPierre Cuypers
Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers was a Dutch architect. His name is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station and the Rijksmuseum , both in Amsterdam. More representative for his oeuvre, however, are numerous churches, of which he designed more than 100...
to design the church, and it's possible he even made a first design, but due to his age his son, Joseph Cuypers, became the architect instead. Cuypers at first designed a church in a neo-gothic style that still clearly showed the influence of his father, but eventually, after numerous changes, Cuypers decided to focus on a neo-romanesque style instead, with influences from Byzantine and jugendstil architecture.
Construction started in 1895 with the choir and its radiating chapels, and on April 1, 1898 the cathedral was consecrated. In the years 1902 - 1906 construction continued with the transept and nave. Due to shortage of money the construction of the towers was prosponed until 1927. In this period Cuypers was assisted by his son Pierre Cuypers Jr..
Despite the size of this cathedral, the former St. Josephs is still also a Catholic church, and there are several other catholic and former catholic churches in Haarlem. Today Haarlem has over 140 protected religious buildings, most of which have been converted for other uses.