Oude Kerk (Delft)
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The Oude Kerk (Old Church) is a Gothic church in the old city center of Delft, South Holland. Its signature feature is a 75-meter high brick tower nicknamed Oude Jan ("Old John"), which leans about two meters off the perpendicular as a result of uneven settling of the foundation. It is possible that part of a canal had been filled in and rerouted to make room for the building, leaving a vein of soft soil into which the tower sank.
The Oude Kerk was founded as St. Bartholomew's Church in the year 1246, on the site of previous churches dating back to perhaps 200 years earlier. The structure resembled a traditional basilica, with a nave flanked by two smaller aisles. Four additional building phases followed. The tower with its central spire and four corner turrets was constructed in the years 1325-50, and dominated the townscape for roughly one and a half centuries until the taller tower of the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) was built nearby. By the end of the 14th century, the side aisles were expanded to the height of the nave, thus transforming the building into a hall church, which was re-consecrated in the name of St. Hippolytus. In the following century the nave was heightened, so that the church again exhibited a typical basilican cross section. Briefly after 1500, an ambitious new construction phase began, successively carried out by two members of the Keldermans family of master builders. The plan was to expand and remodel the building into a cruciform shape, but only a northern transept arm would be added before fire and social turmoil brought construction to an end.
In the Delft town fire of 1536 as well as the iconoclastic riots during the Protestant Reformation, the church structure and furnishings were badly damaged. The stained glass windows shattered when the town's gunpowder store exploded in 1654 (see Delft Explosion). Among several renovations and restorations that have since taken place, the tower turrets were rebuilt in a more vertical alignment than the rest of the tower, giving the tower a slightly kinked appearance. The current windows were crafted by the master glazier Joep Nicolas in the mid-20th century.
The church possesses three pipe organs, from the years 1857 (main organ), 1873 (north aisle) and 1770 (choir).
The most massive bell in the tower, cast in 1570 and called Trinitasklok or Bourdon, weighs nearly nine tonnes, and because of its strong and potentially damaging vibrations, is rung only on such special occasions as the burial of a Dutch royal family member in the nearby New Church.
Approximately 400 people are entombed in the Oude Kerk, including the following notables:
- painter Johannes Vermeer
- scientist Anton van Leeuwenhoek
- naval heroes Piet Hein and Maarten Tromp
- statesman Anthonie Heinsius
- physician/anatomist Regnier de Graaf
- writer Stalpaert van der Wiele
- poet Huibert Poot
- Elizabeth Morgan, daughter of nobleman Marnix van St. Aldegonde
External links
- [Oude Kerk website]
- [View of the Oude Kerk] painted by Jan van der Heyden, ca. 1660 (Web Gallery of Art)
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