Waalse Kerk (Vaals)
The Waalse Kerk in Vaals in the Dutch province of Limburg is a former church building of the French-Walloon Reformed community of Aachen and Eupen . This is located at Akener Straat 12, but not visible from the outside and hidden in the second row. The church was de- dedicated in 1837 and converted into a residential building. The building with the Rijksmonument number 36602 has been a listed building since 1967 .
history
As early as 1558, a Reformed community with French liturgical language was founded in Aachen , which mainly copper masters from Wallonia and France who had fled from the troops of the Duke of Alba around 1554 joined . After the Free Imperial City of Aachen had committed to the “Catholic Faith” in the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, the Reformed worship services were gradually banned and the preachers of the new denomination expelled. Many Reformed people then moved to Burtscheid , Stolberg and Vaals, where religious practice was not restricted to this extent, and held their services there. Not only the French-speaking Reformed people living in Aachen and the surrounding area, but also numerous religiously persecuted people from the Eupen area, here called Geusen , regularly attended the services, initially in private apartments in Vaals. The “Geusenweg” in Vaalserquartier still bears witness to this eventful 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 were. 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 .
Only since then has it been possible for the French Reformed to officially gather there in a barn from 1649. After receiving a donation of 300 guilders from Maastricht a few years later , they could finally afford to build their own church, which was inaugurated in 1667. Two years later, the current pastor, Jacob Blancheteste, received another 10 Reichstaler from the High German Reformed Congregation for the building and furnishing of the church. Like the High German Reformed, the French Reformed had a Calvinist orientation and actually only differed in the language used during worship. The church also had a small cemetery and a few fragments of tombstones were later found in the building.
After the last pastor left in 1797, the Waalse Kerk became the property of the High German Reformed Congregation in Vaals from 1803. Since this congregation already owned the Hervormde Kerk as the central church building in the immediate vicinity , there was no need for two churches. In 1824 they gave away the sacrament silver and the sermon chair in exchange for a small donation to the Catholic Church in Vijlen and in 1837 sold the Waalse Kerk to the citizen Pieter Braun. He had the now de-dedicated church converted into a bakery before it was given its current function as a residential building from 1850.
Despite the takeover by the High German Reformed Congregation, the traditional French Reformed believers met in the basement of the building opposite at 31 Kerkstraat / corner of Akener Straat, where they held their services for a longer period of time. From 1950 this house was also converted into a restaurant and is now also a listed building under the name “Schatulle” (treasure chest).
Building description
The Waalse Kerk is a three-sided closed classical church building in brick construction with a hipped roof . The west side, polygonal in shape as apse, is reinforced by buttresses , the north side by four Doric and Ionic pilasters on high plinths and with gable-like capitals . The main entrance was on the east side, which is emphasized by an oval ox-eye above the entrance gate and below the triangular gable . The frames around the main entrance, the triangular gable and around the ox-eye are made of bluestone, as are the plinths, capitals and eaves .
On the roof ridge behind the triangular gable on the east side there was a small open bell tower in two-storey and hexagonal construction, which was demolished in 1850. The top of the roof gable was crowned by a wind vane in the shape of a trumpet angel . This was later stored and kept by the local residents and only shown on special occasions, as it is part of a historical anecdote. Bumps and bullet marks on this trumpet angel indicate a dispute between Catholics and Protestants in 1757, when Catholic shooters from Vaalserquartier misused the wind vane as a target, whereupon the Protestant pastor had to send 30 cavalry from Maastricht .
East side with entrance area and ox-eye, older photo still with attached wind vane
West side with apse and buttresses
North side with pilasters
Wind vane with gunshot marks
former Waalse Kerk, today; East Side
literature
- JF van Agt: Zuid-Limburg, Vaals Wittem en Slenaken - De Monuments van Geschiedenis en art. Staatsuitgeverij, Den Haag 1983, pp. 68-69, digitized on dbnl.org .
Web links
- Detailed description and pictures of the Waalse Kerk (Voormalige) In: kerkgebouwen-in-limburg.nl (Dutch)
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 8.2 ″ N , 6 ° 1 ′ 20.1 ″ E