History Files
 

Supporting the History Files

Contributed: £175

Target: £400

2023
Totals slider
2023

The History Files still needs your help. As a non-profit site, it is only able to support such a vast and ever-growing collection of information with your help, and this year your help is needed more than ever. Please make a donation so that we can continue to provide highly detailed historical research on a fully secure site. Your help really is appreciated.

 

 

Churches of the Netherlands

Gallery: Churches of Gelderland

by Peter Kessler, 27 December 2009

Nijmegen Part 6: Churches of Galgenveld & Sint Anna

Baptist (Mennonite) Congregation Church

The Baptist (Mennonite) Congregation Church (Doopsgezinde Remonstrantse Gemeente in Dutch) is on the quiet side street of Professor Regoutstraat, in the Galgenveld district of Nijmegen. The church is part of the Arnhem-Nijmegen Chaplaincy within the East Netherlands Group of Chaplaincies. The group provides Sunday services in English in Arnhem, Nijmegen and Twente, something that began in remembrance of the British troops who died here during the war.

St Dominic's Church

St Dominic's Church (St Dominicuskerk) is a short way east of the Baptist Church, at Molkenboerstraat 7, off Heyendaalseweg. The Catholic church was built in the Traditionalist style, following the dictates of the Bossche School, in 1950-1952, to a design by Dominic Thomas Nix. It was a replacement of the old Broerstraat St Dominic's Church in the city, which had been founded in 1375, and which underwent major rebuilding in 1866 by P J H Cuypers.

St Dominic's Church

Unfortunately the old church was partly destroyed during the Allied bombing of 1944. The Dominican nuns decided on a new parish church complex (which included rectory, school and parish house, plus bell tower on the south side), selecting the current location, which was quieter and less built up at the time. The plan was to add a monastery building, but this was never realised. The old St Dominic's Church was demolished in 1951.

Maranatha Church

The Maranatha Church (Maranathakerk) is at Steenbokstraat, on the corner with Dingostraat in the Hazenkamp district. It was commissioned by the council of the Reformed Church and built in 1962-1963 to replace the Bijkerk, which had been built in 1929 on Groenestraat. The design was supplied by architect W Ingwersen. The church building is part of a complex that also consists of a joint meeting and town hall, service rooms, club rooms and a service apartment.

Our Lady of Lourdes Church

Our Lady of Lourdes Church (Onze Lieve Vrouwe (OLV) van Lourdes Kerk) at Hatertseweg 113, is more commonly known as Lourdeskerk. It is one of the two buildings of the Emmaus Parish, the other being Holy Anthony of Padua and St Anne Church to the north-west. The church is a wide three-aisled Expressionist building, constructed in 1923 based on a design by Henri Thunnissen. The facade seems to suggest that a tower was part of the design but wasn't built.

Our Lady of Lourdes Church

To the right of the church as seen from the front lies its Lourdes Grotto. It is a copy of the cave in the French town of Lourdes where, in 1858, the Virgin Mary is reputed to have appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. In 1907 Pope Pius X extended the observance a mass commemorating this event to the entire church, and many countries built copies of the cave. This was an especially strong tradition in the largely Catholic south-east of the Netherlands.

 

 

     
Images and text copyright © all contributors mentioned on this page. An original feature for the History Files.