Vrouwekerk
Encyclopedia
The Vrouwekerk or Vrouwenkerk ("Ladies' Church"), originally known as the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk ("Church of Our Lady"), was a 14th-Century church in the Dutch city of Leiden. In the early 17th Century, the church was attended by the Pilgrims
(who left Leiden to settle in Plymouth Colony
) as well as by the first colonists to settle on Manhattan
.
The ruined remains of this Gothic
church are located on the Vrouwenkerkhof square opposite Museum Boerhaave, just north of the busy shopping street Haarlemmerstraat. The alley Vrouwenkerksteeg, which runs from the Haarlemmerstraat to the Vrouwenkerkhof, is also named after the Vrouwekerk church. The church remains have rijksmonument
(national monument) status. In 2008-2009 the church underwent restoration.
Carolus Clusius and Joseph Justus Scaliger
were buried in the Vrouwekerk.
was built to the northwest of Leiden, in the hamlet of Maredorp. In 1325 a bridge was built across the Rhine and Leiden expanded across the river to encompass Maredorp. As a result, in the mid-14th Century the chapel was enlarged into a stone church called Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk ("Church of Our Lady") and in 1365 the church, originally part of the parish
of Oegstgeest
, became a parish church. The church was further enlarged in 1406 and a walled churchyard was built.
The church contained chapels for various guild
s. The chapel of the surgeons' guild, for instance, was devoted to Cosmas and Damian. A triptych
painted by Cornelis Engebrechtsz.
, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
in Vienna
, probably served as altarpiece
of this chapel.
Wealthy Leiden brewer Willem van Tetrode (not to be confused with the sculptor of the same name) was buried in the church in 1487. He founded the Stevenshofje in Leiden and was also one of the founders of the Leiden brewers' guild, which had its own chapel in the church.
, the name of the church was shortened to Vrouwekerk because the original name, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, was considered too Catholic-sounding. The building was donated to the Huguenots (Calvinist
refugees from the Southern Netherlands
and France
), coming into use as a Walloon church
in 1584. As greater and greater numbers of religious refugees came to Leiden in the 17th Century, the parish grew to some 6,000 members. During services, the church would be so packed that the entire congration was forced to stand in order to make room for everyone.
Like the Pilgrims
, many of these Huguenots later left Leiden for the New World
. A group of Leiden Huguenots led by Jessé de Forest
were the first to settle on Manhattan, thereby founding New Amsterdam
, now New York City
.
The Pilgrims did not have their own church building and therefore used the Vrouwekerk and other churches in Leiden for their baptisms, weddings and funerals. In 1603, Philippe de la Noye was baptized in the Vrouwekerk. This Huguenot, born in Leiden in 1602, left for Plymouth Colony
in 1621 on board the second Pilgrim ship, the Fortune. De La Noye's aunt, Hester le Mahieu, married the Pilgrim leader Francis Cooke
in the Vrouwekerk in 1603. Cooke left for Plymouth on board the Mayflower
in 1621; his wife joined him later. Many well-known Americans are descended from Philippe de la Noye (later anglicized to Delano) and Hester le Mahieu and Francis Cooke; these include U.S. presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant
, George H. W. Bush
and George W. Bush
, director Orson Welles
, and actor Richard Gere
.
Prior to demolishment, the church organ was moved to the former chapel of the St. Catharina Gasthuis, which had become a second Walloon Church at a time when the Vrouwekerk had become too small to accommodate the entire parish community. A number of tombstones were moved to the Pieterskerk
church. Some of these were returned to their original location in the Vrouwekerk in 1989.
In the 19th Century a school building was constructed on the Vrouwekerk terrain. The school was demolished in 1979. Subsequent archeological research in 1979-1980 revealed that the church foundations, built on wooden poles, were still intact. The archeologists even uncovered remains of the original 14th-Century chapel and the foundations of an altar.
In 1982-1983, the church remains were restored. During this restoration, a gate from the sacristy
was placed on the inner wall of the choir. In addition, a cartouche
with the text En Salicht Leiden ("A blessed Leiden"), originally from Leiden's town hall (which was destroyed by fire in 1929), was placed into the eastern outer wall.
Despite the restoration, the church ruins deteriorated into a hangout spot for the local youth, leaving the remains covered in graffiti and soiled with urine. In the 1990s, the city commission on monuments therefore recommended that the remains be removed and replaced with new buildings. The city government in 1995 applied for a permit to redevelop the area, including removal of the above-ground Vrouwekerk remains. This proposal led to protests from the United States, where the church was considered to have important historical significance. A number of organizations in the U.S., including the Roosevelt Institute
, Mayflower Society and New York City's historical society, expressed their opposition to the planned demolishment. The Leiden American Pilgrim Museum
took the city government to court in an attempt to stop the demolishment.
In 2001, the Leiden city council decided to fund the creation of a Leiden American Pilgrim Museum. At that time, the VVD
and CDA
factions in the city council introduced an amendment to preserve the Vrouwekerk remains. However, the amendment was withdrawn after opposition from then-alderman Alexander Pechtold
.
In 2008-2009, a second restoration took place. The Vrouwekerk's crumbling church walls were heightened by one and a half metres and covered by natural stone. Stone was also used to indicate the contours of the church in the pavement, and to show where the graves within the church were located. After the restoration was complete, a ceremony to mark the occasion was held on 5 March 2009 in nearby Museum Boerhaave.
Pilgrims
Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...
(who left Leiden to settle in Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
) as well as by the first colonists to settle on Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
The ruined remains of this Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
church are located on the Vrouwenkerkhof square opposite Museum Boerhaave, just north of the busy shopping street Haarlemmerstraat. The alley Vrouwenkerksteeg, which runs from the Haarlemmerstraat to the Vrouwenkerkhof, is also named after the Vrouwekerk church. The church remains have rijksmonument
Rijksmonument
A rijksmonument is a National Heritage Site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.-History and criteria:...
(national monument) status. In 2008-2009 the church underwent restoration.
Carolus Clusius and Joseph Justus Scaliger
Joseph Justus Scaliger
Joseph Justus Scaliger was a French religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and Ancient Egyptian history.-Early life:He was born at Agen, the tenth child and third son of Italian...
were buried in the Vrouwekerk.
History
Middle Ages
Around the year 1300 a chapel devoted to the Virgin MaryMary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
was built to the northwest of Leiden, in the hamlet of Maredorp. In 1325 a bridge was built across the Rhine and Leiden expanded across the river to encompass Maredorp. As a result, in the mid-14th Century the chapel was enlarged into a stone church called Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk ("Church of Our Lady") and in 1365 the church, originally part of the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Oegstgeest
Oegstgeest
Oegstgeest is a town and municipality in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. Its population was 22,576 in 2008.-Location :...
, became a parish church. The church was further enlarged in 1406 and a walled churchyard was built.
The church contained chapels for various guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
s. The chapel of the surgeons' guild, for instance, was devoted to Cosmas and Damian. A triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
painted by Cornelis Engebrechtsz.
Cornelis Engebrechtsz.
Cornelis Engebrechtsz. was an early Dutch painter. He is considered the first important painter from Leiden. Engebrechtsz. taught a number of other Leiden painters, including Lucas van Leyden, Aertgen van Leyden and Engebrechtsz.' own sons Cornelis, Lucas, and Pieter Cornelisz. Kunst...
, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, probably served as altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
of this chapel.
Wealthy Leiden brewer Willem van Tetrode (not to be confused with the sculptor of the same name) was buried in the church in 1487. He founded the Stevenshofje in Leiden and was also one of the founders of the Leiden brewers' guild, which had its own chapel in the church.
Huguenots and Pilgrims
Following the ReformationProtestant 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...
, the name of the church was shortened to Vrouwekerk because the original name, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, was considered too Catholic-sounding. The building was donated to the Huguenots (Calvinist
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
refugees from the Southern Netherlands
Southern Netherlands
Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria and annexed by France...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
), coming into use as a Walloon church
Walloon church
A Walloon church describes any Calvinist church building in the Netherlands and its former colonies whose members originally came from the Southern Netherlands and France and whose native language is French...
in 1584. As greater and greater numbers of religious refugees came to Leiden in the 17th Century, the parish grew to some 6,000 members. During services, the church would be so packed that the entire congration was forced to stand in order to make room for everyone.
Like the Pilgrims
Pilgrims
Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...
, many of these Huguenots later left Leiden for the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
. A group of Leiden Huguenots led by Jessé de Forest
Jessé de Forest
Jessé de Forest was the leader of a group of Walloon Huguenots who fled Europe due to religious persecutions. Jessé de Forest emigrated to the New World, where he planned to found New-Belgium...
were the first to settle on Manhattan, thereby founding New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
, now New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
The Pilgrims did not have their own church building and therefore used the Vrouwekerk and other churches in Leiden for their baptisms, weddings and funerals. In 1603, Philippe de la Noye was baptized in the Vrouwekerk. This Huguenot, born in Leiden in 1602, left for Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
in 1621 on board the second Pilgrim ship, the Fortune. De La Noye's aunt, Hester le Mahieu, married the Pilgrim leader Francis Cooke
Francis Cooke
Francis Cooke was one of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower. This early settler is one of the twenty-six male Pilgrims known to have descendants.- Early life and family :...
in the Vrouwekerk in 1603. Cooke left for Plymouth on board the Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
in 1621; his wife joined him later. Many well-known Americans are descended from Philippe de la Noye (later anglicized to Delano) and Hester le Mahieu and Francis Cooke; these include U.S. presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
, George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, director Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
, and actor Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
.
Demolishment and restoration
After a large part of the Huguenot community in Leiden left the city for the New World, the Vrouwekerk started falling apart, so that in 1808 it was no longer possible to hold services there. Eventually the church was sold and largely demolished. In 1837 only the church tower and some of the walls were left standing. In 1840, the tower was also demolished.Prior to demolishment, the church organ was moved to the former chapel of the St. Catharina Gasthuis, which had become a second Walloon Church at a time when the Vrouwekerk had become too small to accommodate the entire parish community. A number of tombstones were moved to the Pieterskerk
Pieterskerk, Leiden
The Pieterskerk is a late-Gothic church in Leiden dedicated to Saint Peter. It is best known today as the church of the Pilgrim Fathers where John Robinson was buried.-History:...
church. Some of these were returned to their original location in the Vrouwekerk in 1989.
In the 19th Century a school building was constructed on the Vrouwekerk terrain. The school was demolished in 1979. Subsequent archeological research in 1979-1980 revealed that the church foundations, built on wooden poles, were still intact. The archeologists even uncovered remains of the original 14th-Century chapel and the foundations of an altar.
In 1982-1983, the church remains were restored. During this restoration, a gate from the 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...
was placed on the inner wall of the choir. In addition, a cartouche
Cartouche (design)
A cartouche is an oval or oblong design with a slightly convex surface, typically edged with ornamental scrollwork. It is used to hold a painted or low relief design....
with the text En Salicht Leiden ("A blessed Leiden"), originally from Leiden's town hall (which was destroyed by fire in 1929), was placed into the eastern outer wall.
Despite the restoration, the church ruins deteriorated into a hangout spot for the local youth, leaving the remains covered in graffiti and soiled with urine. In the 1990s, the city commission on monuments therefore recommended that the remains be removed and replaced with new buildings. The city government in 1995 applied for a permit to redevelop the area, including removal of the above-ground Vrouwekerk remains. This proposal led to protests from the United States, where the church was considered to have important historical significance. A number of organizations in the U.S., including the Roosevelt Institute
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
The Roosevelt Institute is a progressive non-profit organization devoted to carrying forward the legacy and values of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by developing progressive ideas and bold leadership in the service of restoring America's health and security...
, Mayflower Society and New York City's historical society, expressed their opposition to the planned demolishment. The Leiden American Pilgrim Museum
Leiden American Pilgrim Museum
The Leiden American Pilgrim Museum is a small museum in the Dutch city of Leiden dedicated to the Pilgrim Fathers . These Separatists or English Dissenters were religious refugees who had fled England and lived in Leiden for about 12 years. In 1620, they left Leiden for the New World on board the...
took the city government to court in an attempt to stop the demolishment.
In 2001, the Leiden city council decided to fund the creation of a Leiden American Pilgrim Museum. At that time, the VVD
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...
and CDA
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...
factions in the city council introduced an amendment to preserve the Vrouwekerk remains. However, the amendment was withdrawn after opposition from then-alderman Alexander Pechtold
Alexander Pechtold
Alexander Pechtold is a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 party. He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 30 November 2006 as well as Parliamentary group leader since 23 November 2006...
.
In 2008-2009, a second restoration took place. The Vrouwekerk's crumbling church walls were heightened by one and a half metres and covered by natural stone. Stone was also used to indicate the contours of the church in the pavement, and to show where the graves within the church were located. After the restoration was complete, a ceremony to mark the occasion was held on 5 March 2009 in nearby Museum Boerhaave.
External links
- Vrouwekerk.org Website of the campaign to preserve the Vrouwekerk remains