St. John's Cathedral ('s-Hertogenbosch)
The St. John's Cathedral ( Dutch Sint-Janskathedraal ) is a Roman Catholic , Gothic cathedral in the center of the Dutch city of 's-Hertogenbosch . It is considered the high point of the Brabant Gothic in the Netherlands and has been declared a Rijksmonument .
history
The church was initially a parish church without any special status. It was probably built in the first quarter of the 13th century as a Romanesque building made of natural stone, “blue stone” and “white stone”, which are mentioned as extracted materials at the end of the 15th century when the first building was demolished. The west tower of the church, which is still preserved today, was built from brick between 1240 and 1250 , only individual components made of natural stone. Since the material combination is not decorative in detail, a colored coating is assumed. The tower had a round-arched Romanesque west portal, which was replaced by a larger Gothic portal in the 14th century, but the round-arched twin windows of the original upper storey were and are already set in early Gothic pointed arches.
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With the next extensions in Gothic style, the new building parts were made of brick, but faced , in the base area with limestone from the area around Namur , above with Eifel tuff ; Around 1268, today's Marienkapelle was built to the north of the tower, 1280-1312 the choir was extended and provided with two side choirs, one of which was used in 1318 by the Brotherhood of Our Lady. This first Gothic choir had two side towers. It is unclear whether there were two attempts to lengthen the choir, one in 1280 and one shortly after 1300.
After being elevated to the status of a collegiate church , this first or second church was replaced piece by piece from the east from 1350 by today's building designed by Willem van Kessel in a splendid Brabant Gothic style . The wall core of today's basilica is also made of brick, but it is faced with sandstone both inside and outside and richly decorated with stonemasonry and sculpture.
Between 1472 and 1495, by clearing neighboring properties, an extension of the nave to the west was prepared, with a tower or pair of towers in front of it. For the bells delivered by a Cologne foundry in 1495, the old brick tower was raised by two late Gothic bell storeys, which was initially intended as a temporary measure. The ship was completed around 1520. Between 1521 and 1529 the crossing tower was given a high wooden spire with two lantern storeys .
Around 1580, an engraving in the Civitates Orbis Terrarum by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg shows the church with two high spiers, each ending in an onion, of which that of the four tower has two lantern-like floors.
In 1559 the diocese of Utrecht was elevated to an archdiocese and divided into several suffragans . Thus the Sint-Janskerk became the cathedral of the newly founded diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch .
On July 15, 1584, lightning struck the crossing tower and caused a major fire that severely damaged many parts of the church, including the top of the west tower. During the restoration, the crossing tower received its current peak, which does not protrude far beyond the masonry, and the west tower received the current renaissance helmet .
Between 1629 and 1813 the church was used by a small Reformed congregation , which was overwhelmed with the maintenance of the large building. Since the equality of all denominations in the Netherlands, the building belongs to the Catholic Church again.
A first restoration was carried out from 1859 to 1864. In the 1920s, the outer skin of the Romanesque and Gothic brick tower was replaced. On June 26, 1929, the church received the honorary title of minor basilica . The interior was restored from 1961 to 1985. Another renovation has been underway since 2000.
Furnishing
Inside the church there is a baptismal font created in 1492 and an important organ . In addition to the furnishing of the interior, the building impresses with its size (the length is approx. 115 m) and its facades richly decorated with stone sculptures .
Since 2007 the New York terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 can be seen on a leaded glass window above the western entrance as a symbol of hell.
Since April 2011, the statue of an angel with a cell phone can be seen on the south facade of the cathedral. A sign indicates a telephone number where you can call "the angel".
organ
After the cathedral's old organ was destroyed in a tower fire in 1584 , the renowned Graver organ builder Florentius Hocque was commissioned to build a new organ for 9,600 guilders in 1618 . Joris Deur was to carry out the necessary stone carving, Frans Simonsz was hired as a carpenter, and the remarkable sculptures were created by Georg Schysler. This external work was estimated at a further 2,850 guilders. The construction of the organ lasted from 1620 to 1622. The approval did not take place until 1634. Since Hocque died in 1632, his pupil Hans Goltfuss had completed the organ. The report on this was so negative that it was recommended to pay Goltfuss out and to look for another organ builder to eliminate the errors. Galtus Germer and his son Germer Galtus von Hagerbeer then revised the instrument between April 27 and November 1, 1634. This time the organ was removed.
After a significant decline of the instrument due to poor maintenance, Cornelis Hoornbeeck carried out a conversion from 1715 to 1718. Christian Müller worked with him on the organ, who would later take over the maintenance and other small changes. Another phase of decline follows, until between 1775 and 1777 Anastasius Meinhards from Frankenberg carried out an overhaul. In doing so, however, the instrument was more likely to cause damage. After long deliberations, on June 21, 1784, a contract was signed with the organ builder Antonius Friedrich Gottlieb Heyneman for a new renovation, which amounted to a new building. At the end of 1787 the organ was removed.
Some repairs and modifications were made in the course of the 19th century, until finally in 1897 the condition of the instrument and the taste of the time required another new building. By 1902, the Franssen brothers from Roermond created an instrument in a romantic style with a pneumatic action and eight high pressure voices at 300 mm wind pressure. The poor quality of the system finally meant that the organ could not be played in 1945. Between 1951 and 1953, the Verschueren Orgelbouw company from Heythuysen built in a lower-quality universal organ with an electro-pneumatic action. From 1977 efforts were made to restore the organ. It was decided to largely reconstruct the condition of 1787. The organ building company Flentrop in Zaandam was commissioned to do this. Finally, in 1984 the organ in its present form was inaugurated. It still contains numerous pipes from the 17th and 18th centuries. The prospectus has also been preserved, which is one of the most magnificent baroque organ cases. Today the instrument has 48 registers on three manuals and a pedal .
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- Coupling : II / I, I / II, III / II, I / P, II / P
- All mixtures contain terzene throughout.
- Tuning: Equal with a 1 = 415 Hz.
In the choir of the church there is an organ in the French-Romantic style with 28 stops on two manuals and pedal and in the sacrament chapel there is an instrument with 6 divided stops.
literature
organ
- Kerkbestuur Parochie Binnenstad 's-Hertogenbosch (ed.): De restauratie van het grote orgel in de cathedral basiliek van Sint Jan te' s-Hertogenbosch . 's-Hertogenbosch 1984.
Web links
- Cathedral website (Dutch)
- Sint-Janskathedraal in the monument portal of the city of s'Hertogenbosch (Dutch)
- Website of the organ foundation Hendrik Niehoff with information about the organs and organ concerts
Individual evidence
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Omroep Brabant : [2] December 23, 2011
Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 17 " N , 5 ° 18 ′ 27" E