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Delft - Oud-Katholieke schuilkerk Bagijnhof (Old Catholic hiding-church)

City: “Delft is a city of tourism and artisans. A city which displays remnants of the past monarchy (House of Orange-Nassau) and which is famous for its artistic blue earthenware. Those elements roughly sum up the character of the historical city” (Internet site of the city Delft). Delft is located in Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands. The city, with its 96,000 inhabitants (2009), can be proud of a long history. The city was built on a dug-out watercourse: the Delft. This is the origin of the name, “Delven” which means “to dig”. By 1246 the city had already obtained city rights out of the hands of Earl William II. City rights is a denomination for particular rights and privileges which were granted, such as the right to have a market, toll right, the right to make town walls, to have their own court etc.

Building : The Delft Beguinage (spelled Bagijnhof instead of Begijnhof) was constructed in the 13th century. A town fire in 1536 reduced the main part of the city to ash. The rebuilding of the chapel started around 1550 – but was probably never finished. Shortly after the Reformation, the chapel - or what was left of it – was demolished. A number of Catholics were banished in the 18th century by the Pope because they wanted to keep to, what were called, old church views’. For this reason the banished people formed their own church society in 1723 called The Old Catholic Church. In 1743 they formed in Delft a “schuilkerk’ or hiding church. You can not see that it is a church from the outside. There was no effort made to make it look like one. The Dutch people in general took the decision to join the Reformated Church. Catholics were forced to take their refuge in churches that were hidden as it was illegal to practice their faith. The interior of this church on the other hand was made into a sumptuous baroque.

Voorwerp: At the top God’s name can be seen…

 

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