Apeldoorn
(G): Gereformeerde or Noorderkerk (J. A. Wijn, 1898)
This
church was built in
1898 for the gereformeerden, replacing a smaller church built
in 1869. The new church was designed by J.A. Wijn, a local
architect who built houses in neo-Renaissance style mostly. That same
style was much preferred by various protestant denominations, the
gereformeerden included. A church in neo-Gothic style is
obviously
unusual for both architect and denomination. Even more unusual is the
quality of the neo-Gothic style, which bears great similarity
with
that of the catholic architects of the Utrecht School like A. Tepe and
J.W.
Boerbooms, the latter being the architect of the catholic Mariakerk
built in the same period. The facades of the two churches are even
remarkably similar.
The
gereformeerden chose the neo-Gothic style in response to the
neo-Renaissance Grote Kerk of the reformed, built a few years earlier a
bit more to the south. The shape of the church is typically
protestant with its centralizing ground plan in the shape of a
Greek cross. The church has a short, straight "choir" and big,
polygonal "transept-arms". At the side of church is the tower, which is
in a different style of neo-Gothic.
In recent years, the church was converted into an officebuilding.
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