Hervormde Kerk (Vaals)
The Hervormde Kerk ( German Reformed Church ) in Vaals in the Dutch province of Limburg is the oldest Protestant church in this province. It was built from 1669 to 1672 on behalf of the High German Reformed community from Aachen , Burtscheid and Vaals according to plans by the Dutch architect Pieter Post on the north side of the bell tower, the eastern side with the Catholic St. Paulus-Kerk , which stood there at the time was connected.
The Hervormde Kerk Vaals stands on a slight hill at today's Kerkstraat 47 in Vaals and belongs to the parish Maas-Heuvelland of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands . The church building including its baroque organ by Jacob Engelbert Teschemacher was added to the list of historical monuments in 1967 under the Rijksmonumentennummer 36625 and the tower separately under the number 36624 .
history
In the early modern period , Vaals belonged to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , also known as the States General, which left the Holy Roman Empire (HRR) as part of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which ended both the Eighty Years 'War and the Thirty Years' War was. In the States General, in contrast to the HRR, in which the Roman Catholic denomination remained the only predominant religion until the end of the Old Kingdom around 1794, there was extensive tolerance of Protestantism , which was mainly Calvinist . This led to the fact that a Reformed congregation was founded in Vaals on March 21, 1649 under the leadership of its pastor Georg Ulrich Wenning, which was joined by a particularly large number of Protestant residents from Aachen and Burtscheid, as they continued to be massively prevented from practicing religion in their two hometowns were. The Roman Catholic St. Paulus Church in Vaals, which had existed since the 13th century, was offered to them as church space , which was then used as a simultaneous church by members of both denominations until 1663 .
In the early years there were repeated quarrels, mutual accusations and lockouts, which is why the Simultaneous Church, based on the laws and ordinances of the States General, was only allowed to be used by the Reformed until the completion of a new church of its own from 1663. The Catholics then had to move to places of worship in the area of the Aachen Empire or in the surrounding areas. Since the church building in use was also very dilapidated and too small for the increasing number of Protestant Christians, including from German “abroad”, the States General financed a new church for the Reformed community. This building was realized from 1669 according to plans by Pieter Post and built at right angles to the previous simultaneous church on the north side of the medieval church tower of the existing St. Paulus church. This old tower in Romanesque style previously served as a watchtower and defense tower for a long time and as a prison for several periods. In addition, Catholic priests and schoolmasters as well as Protestant preachers lived there between 1580 and 1660.
The laying of the foundation stone for the new Protestant church took place on September 26, 1669 with the participation of Pastor Georg Ulrich Wenning, the resident and agent of the States General of the Netherlands in Aachen Franz von Wachtendonk and the rent master Theodor Biems. On Palm Sunday, April 10, 1672, the new Hervormde Kerk was inaugurated. A year earlier, the Reformed Church had repairs carried out on the old Catholic Church. On July 4, 1673, they finally returned the church keys to the Catholics. The old bell tower was again used jointly by both churches.
After French troops were temporarily stationed again in Vaals at that time and wanted to occupy Valkenburg Castle , the Catholics felt empowered to give up their own, structurally more and more dilapidated church and to take over the new Reformed Church. For this purpose they broke open the locks of the new Hervormde Kerk on July 7, 1673 and exchanged them. Now the German Reformed congregation had to move to the Waalse Kerk of Vaals, which was built in 1667 for the French-speaking Protestants and only two hundred meters away, and was only allowed to return to its own church on June 30, 1680 at the instigation of the States General. As in the mid-1660s, the Catholics had to go to replacement churches again and wait until 1751 before they were approved to build their own new Catholic church in the baroque style with funds from the Aachen Marienstift instead of the dilapidated church The same place was built with the inclusion of the still shared tower.
In the meantime, around 1689, the Hervormde Kerk was damaged again by passing French troops and the old pastory that belonged to it was set on fire. As a result, the Hervormde Church first had to be repaired and renovated. It was not until the years 1716/1717 that a new pastorei was finally built in the immediate vicinity of their church on behalf of the Reformed Church according to plans by the Aachen architect Laurenz Mefferdatis , which still exists today and was last thoroughly restored in 1996 and also placed under monument protection in 1967 .
Since then, the Reformed community has been able to hold its services in the Hervormde Kerk largely undisturbed. In addition, the church, which was last restored in 1986, is a popular location for private, public and cultural events.
The old church tower is now used exclusively by the Hervormde Kerk, since a fifth, now neo-Gothic version of the St. Paulus Kerk was built a few hundred meters away in 1892/1893 and the old previous building on the east side of the tower was finally torn down in 1967. The medieval tower is still part of the Roman Catholic parish and the oldest surviving building in the parish of Vaals.
Building description
The Hervormde Kerk is a classicist hall building closed on three sides in brick construction with a hipped roof made of slate panels. The side of the building is supported by massive buttresses , which are finished with slate-covered heavy bluestone from Namur in baroque form under the church roof. The base of the church, the cornice of the facades and the frames of the arched windows and the two church entrances are made of the same bluestone. One is on the south side of the church, leaning against the medieval tower to the west. The year 1671 is carved into its door gable . Today's main entrance is in the right quarter on the east wall facing the street and has the letters “A” and “H”, which indicate the stonemasons commissioned.
The interior is determined by a wooden barrel vault , placed on a wooden console running all around . Four lead glass windows on each of the two side walls and three in the apse with various motifs by an unknown artist provide atmospheric lighting for the nave.
Gravestones and tombstones set in the ground indicate important personalities who were buried here, including the couple Bartholomäus and Johanna Thylen, died 1685 and 1702, Adam Thelen, died 1741, and Johann Wilhelm and Clara Troistorff, died 1737 and 1739 But also the Danish traveling salesman and governor of the Danish East India Company on Tranquebar , Isaac Hanson, who was on a cure in Aachen in 1744, where he died on October 8, 1744, found his final resting place directly in front of the altar in the Hervormde Kerk.
Interior
The strictly Calvinist interior design consists of open and closed rows of benches and loose seating from more recent times. From the 17th century there is only one man's bench with winding columns and a canopy , which is set up on the west side of the apse and on the back wall of which a coat of arms with the letters "FB" is carved in the middle. The six-sided wooden sermon chair with canopy and vaulted panels, also from the 17th century, stands behind the altar table on the north wall of the apse. The almost bare walls are only decorated with a death shield with the inscription: “Gerard Baron de Meerman 'Seig: de Dalem et Vuuren', 'Conseiller du Haut Tribunal de la Venerie de Hollande, et Westfrise' enz., Died in Aken op 15 december 1771, buried in Vaals on December 21st and on December 28th van dat jaar transferred naar Leiden om te been bijgezet in het familiegraf in de Sint-Pieterskerk ” .
On the south side of the choir , the organ is mounted on a curved wooden gallery, which was made in 1772 by the Wuppertal organ builder Jacob Engelbert Teschemacher . It is a baroque organ with one manual and ten continuous and seven half registers as well as an attached pedal . Its wooden case is designed in the Louis Seize style and crowned with a clock face. It was first thoroughly restored in 1826 by the Aachen organ workshop Wilhelm Korfmacher and again in 1986 by the Dutch workshop Verschueren Orgelbouw from Heythuysen and modernized.
Several particularly valuable liturgical objects from the early years of the Hervormde Kerk are still in use, including a baptismal font on four feet with gilded decoration. The coat of arms of Aachen eagle , the trinity symbol of the Aachen-Burtscheid-Vaals parish and the inscription: "Tauff-Becken / zum Dinst / der Reformirten Kirche / zu Vaals / gathering community 1762" are engraved on it in Louis-seize style .
The church treasures also include a gilded communion chalice from the workshop of the Aachen goldsmith Peter von Rath, also engraved with an eagle and the Trinity symbol as well as with the saying “spes anchora” and the year 1750; In addition, a host container on four feet in the form of a tray with a gilded top from the workshop of Antonius Emondt and engraved in the same way as the chalice, but with the year 1762.
Interior view with organ
pulpit
Man's chair
Teschemacher organ
literature
- JF van Agt: Zuid-Limburg, Vaals Wittem en Slenaken - De Monuments van Geschiedenis en art. Staatsuitgeverij, Den Haag 1983, pp. 69–81, digitized on dbnl.org (ndl.) .
Web links
- Detailed description and pictures of the Hervormde Kerk Vaals In: kerkgebouwen-in-limburg.nl (Dutch)
- Parish website (Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ^ Sabine Rother: Traces of an exciting past , in Aachener Zeitung of November 13, 2002
- ↑ Vita Gerard Meerman on dbnl.org (ndl.)
- ↑ Series of pictures Teschemacher-Orgel Vaals
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 9.5 ″ N , 6 ° 1 ′ 16.1 ″ E