Beverwijk (NH):
O.L. Vrouw van Goede Raad (A.J. Kropholler, 1914-1915)
A.J. Kropholler's first church immediately
shows that in the next decades this architect's style did not
change. It's a simple one-aisled building, although that aisle
is quite wide and has side-aisle-like spaces at its rear half.
Already present here are the big but hardly functional buttresses,
the small windows, the wooden ceiling and the sparsely but effectively
used natural stone. Just like all his other churches. Kropholler
also designed the presbytery.
This church was built for a second catholic parish in Beverwijk,
the other being the St. Agatha.
Due to changes in the borders between the two parishes the St.
Agatha became a church of the rich and the middle class, while
the O.L. Vrouw became a workers' church. The ceremonial first
stone was laid on October the 21st of 1914; at that moment work
had already begun. World War One had started, and although The
Netherlands remained neutral the army enlisted many working men.
This, and the occasional lack of building materials, hindered
the construction of the church. In 1915 the church was still
not completed when work stopped. In 1927 work continued, when
the church was extended with several traves to the west, but
the tower was added even later. In 1922-1923 a school was
built at the front of the church.
In 1989 the diocese of Haarlem decided that one of the two churches
was to be closed. The decision to close the St. Agatha, an important
design by Jos. Cuypers, was later withdrawn. Instead now the
O.L. Vrouw will be closed. Although a listed building, its future
is unclear.
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