Neerbosch Church (or Neerboschkerk
in Dutch) is on the leafy street of Dorpsstraat in this former
village which was absorbed into Nijmegen in the nineteenth century
and now forms one of its quietest suburbs. Neerbosch was first
inhabited in the thirteenth century when the marshes to the west
of Nijmegen were drained. The church was built in the late fourteenth
century for the growing community here, and is a three-aisled pseudo-basilica
building in the Gothic style.
The church's whitewashed bricks have hardly
changed since it was built, giving it the local nickname, 'the white
church'. The name 'in den Nederen Bosche' ('in the low forest')
was first noted in 1410. The church's tower was in added in 1438 and
the church was renovated in 1456. In 1591, with the Protestant
liberation of Nijmegen, the church was switched from its relatively
short-lived Catholic status and dedicated to Anthony Abbot.
In 1920 the elongated village, and Dorpsstraat
itself, was cut in half by the construction of the Maas-Waal canal,
to the immediate west of the church. The disconnected western half
of the main street was renamed Sint Agnetenweg. More recently, the
remains of Nerbosch were further hemmed in by the building of a
highway immediately to the east. Today the church is used as a
showroom for liturgical garments, although its bell still rings
in the hours.
Holy Anthony of Padua and St Anne Church (Heilig
Antonius van Padua en St Anna) is located at Groenestraat 229, on
the corner of Dobbelmannweg. It is also popularly known as Green
Street Church (Groenestraatkerk), probably to differentiate it from
the similarly named Holy Anthony of Padua in Nijmegen. The church is one of the two buildings
of the Emmaus Parish, the other being Our Lady of Lourdes Church on
Hatertseweg.
The construction work was started in 1909, at a time
when the area around it was still rural, although civil construction
in the neighbourhood soon caught up. The church was completed in 1910
to a design by A A J Margry. The dedication of the church to St Anthony
comes from the fact that the building work was financed by a grant
from the Grew Fund, the creation of Rotterdam's J P Grawen, a patron
of the church who particularly admired St Anthony.
The three-aisled basilica cross has a facade with
two towers of unequal height built in brick. The highest tower
reached up fifty six metres (184 feet). The mention of St Anne in
the neo-Gothic church's dedication refers not to a devotion to this
particular saint, but instead refers to the former hamlet of St Anna
which, after the Second World War, was divided into several smaller
districts, one of which is Hazenkamp, where the church is located.
Find us on Facebook
