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Help preserve the Vrouwekerk
Ruins of the Walloon Church in Leiden
The 14th century Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk in Leiden, The Netherlands, is on the verge
of permanent, irreversible destruction. Aided and abetted by the giant, multi-billion dollar
companies Fortis, ABN/AMRO and Royal Ahold, the scandal-plagued Leiden city government is intent on replacing this
ancient monument with a shopping mall. With what can perhaps be best described as "ineptitude
that rises to empyreal absurdity", even the Pieterskerk Foundation is not above publishing false
and misleading information in a coordinated effort to convince the public that the Vrouwekerk ruins
are of no particular historical importance. Some of us quite disagree..
Click above to view Dr. Bangs' Proposal for
the presentation of the ruins
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The Vrouwekerk, much as it would have appeared in the time of Francis Cooke, Hester Mahieu
and Philippe de la Noye. The church's history stretches from the 14th to the early 16th centuries.
From 1584, the church was used by the Walloon Reformed Community.
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Ruins of the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk as they appear today
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The building was largely demolished between 1818 and 1840.
Largely unmaintained, the ruins are used as a public toilet. Graffiti adds insult to injury.
The Rijksdienst voor Monumentenzorg (governmental department for
protection of monuments) estimated the wall as one of the 81 most
important historic ruins in Holland. In the book "Ruïnes in Nederland"
[Schulte, A.G. (ed.). Ruïnes in Nederland (Zwolle : Waanders 1997) ISBN 90-400-9974-X],
the Rijksdienst devotes three pages to the church and the wall,
originally part of the choir. In spite of this, the City of Leiden
plans to tear what little remains to make room for a shopping mall.
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Leiden Alderman Mr. Tjeerd van Rij is the driving force behind the
intended destruction of the Vrouwekerk and Aalmarkt sites.
van Rij has repeatedly made the erroneous claim that almost all of
what is now visible is recent reconstruction, and thus a fake. In
fact, detailed photos made by Dr. Bangs during excavations in 1979-1980
prove that most of what is visible of the central wall and its buttresses is
original, with minor
additions to the foundations, of a layer or two of bricks to protect
the outer surfaces from deterioration:
The additions are all
consistent with restoration practices throughout Europe. Because the
original bricks and stones are easily recognizable by historic period,
to the trained eye, the alderman's spurious assertions that most of
the ruin is fake is nothing but a propaganda appeal whose purpose must
be to mislead people into accepting the demolition of what remains.
The Leiden
City Council may be reached at:
City of Leiden
Postbus 9100
2300 PC Leiden
The Netherlands
sleutel@leiden.nl
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Misinformation Alert |
Stichting Pieterskerk Leiden
Kloksteeg 16
Leiden, 2311 SL NL
Website
www.pieterskerk.com
Email
post@pieterskerk.com
Press release intended for U.S. audiences
THE REAL THREAT TO AMERICAN PILGRIM HERITAGE IN LEIDEN
"...But there is no need to be worried, as some U.S. press organs and
others recently did, about the foreseen demolition of the dreary
remainders of the Vrouwekerk / Church of Our Lady. There is only a
minor wall that mainly consists of brickwork laid during a 19th
century reconstruction of the house of God where no Pilgrims but
French speaking Walloons worshipped..."
Rebuttal by Dr. Bangs:
"...A remarkable aspect of the interaction between the French-speaking
Calvinists and John Robinson's Separatists is that because of their
agreement on matters of theology and practice, those of each group who
understood the other's language were permitted by each group to attend
services in both churches, and even to take communion together... I am
personally quite a fan of the Pieterskerk, but some of the people
working over there are not as well informed as they are parochially enthusiastic.
The idea that the ruin is largely 19th century is nonsense..."
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NEWSM@IL - Weekly Digest of News and Views in the Netherlands
No. 8/1999-2000 21 December 1999
Leiden upsets Americans
America is angry at the historical Dutch town of Leiden. The city council is planning to
demolish a piece of wall that was originally part of the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, the church
at which the Pilgrim Fathers worshipped before they left Europe for the New World in 1620.
The Pilgrim Fathers, often seen as the forefathers of the modern American state, were religious
refugees from England, who sought refuge in Holland before finally setting sail for America.
The piece of wall, the only remaining part of their church, now stands in a square in the centre
of Leiden. Despite being renovated in the 1970s, the wall is used as a public toilet and a
waste tip, and is seen locally as something of an eyesore. The local authorities therefore
decided to remove it to make way for new a large-scale modernization of the square.
They did not reckon, however, on the historical sensitivities of their transatlantic cousins,
who have set up a campaign to save the wall.
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----- Original Message -----
From: mail.leidenpromotie.nl
To: (name withheld)
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2000 7:37 AM
Subject: To Whom It May Concern
Dear (name withheld),
We thank you for your interest in our city, and specially for the
ruine.
But we would like to inform you that it is a small part of a church
which has been demolished 300 years ago.
So we are not going to demolish a whole church, but just a small part
of it.
The pieces left are in the middle of the centre, so it is not possible
to create a park around it.
There are a lot of other nice objects in Leiden, which will remember
the Pilgrim fathers in Leiden.
Of course we know that also these smaller things might be important
for American people, so we will send your letter to our community, and
hopefully they will reconsider the situation.
With kind regards,
Leiden Promotie VVV
(Ed: see the Leiden Promotie VVV website)
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How you can help preserve the Vrouwekerk
Add this banner to your web site:
Back in late June and early July Dr. Bangs,
the Director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum Foundation or
"LAPMF", became involved in the effort to save the ruins of the
Vrouwekerk, the old Walloon Church in Leiden in which many of our
ancestors were baptized.
Dr. Bangs in front of the Vrouwekerk
(Background on the Pilgrims in Leiden)
Dr. Jeremy Bangs is the former chief curator at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts,
and the present Director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum. He has spent most of his
life studying the group of religious dissidents who first left the Church of England, and
then left England itself for what they hoped was a more tolerant place: Holland.
Last summer, the City of Leiden decided to proceed with their plan to
tear down the historic ruins of the medieval Vrouwekerk -- an
important work of Dutch architecture as well as an important Pilgrim
site. The destruction of these ruins is related to an overall urban
development plan of building a shopping center where twenty medieval
and seventeenth- century houses now stand -- in a complex that
includes the hospital hall where Myles Standish recuperated from the
wounds he received while serving in the Dutch army.
On 26th March 1998, the revised historical monument and demolition licences were
granted by the City Council. A legal objection to the licences was lodged by Mr. Kloeg
and the Arent Foundation in 's Gravensande.
On behalf of the LAPMF, Dr. Bangs joined two other entities to appeal
the destruction of the church ruins. At that time, many of you helped
by writing letters of support to Judge Westenberg, who was scheduled
to hear the case in The Hague on 15 September. On reviewing the LAPMF
charter, Judge Westenberg had decided that it was a legitimate party
in the case, and could present evidence at the hearing.
When Dr. Bangs arrived at the hearing on 15 September, he was informed
that Judge Westenberg had been replaced by another Judge. The new
Judge did not agree that the LAPMF was a legitimate party in the case.
Because of this, and other "technicalities" which suddenly
materialized, Dr. Bangs was not allowed to speak.
In a decision dated 12th October 1999, the Administrative Law department of the Court
of the Hague determined that there were no grounds to these appeals, and refused to allow
the LAPMF to intervene at such a late stage in the proceedings.
On or about Friday, 5 November, the Judge sided with the City of
Leiden Town Council, and gave permission to demolish the Vrouwekerk
ruins.
On 24th November 1999 the City Council was informed by the Council of State that the
Arent Foundation in 's Gravensande and Dr. Bangs had lodged an appeal. This appeal had the effect
of temporarily halting the proceedings.
The LAPMF and the other involved parties applied for an appeal of the
Judge's decision to the Raad van State (equivalent to the U.S. Supreme
Court).
On 11 January, Dr. Bangs reported that his petition for appeal had
been accepted, and a Dutch environmental defense organization had
agreed to provide Dr. Bangs with free legal assistance. As long as
the appeal to the Raad van State is not decided, the City of Leiden
cannot start demolishing the Vrouwekerk ruins.
Dr. Bangs needs further support from all of us in the form of letters,
urging the preservation of the Vrouwekerk.
We would like to thank the
New England Historic Genealogical Society for their help in promoting the
preservation of the Vrouwekerk in "New England Ancestors" magazine, the
The Olive Tree Genealogy
pages at RootsWeb for featuring this story on their front page, the
United Church of Christ
for their articles and petition,
the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour for their Justice and Peace Advocacy section, the
BoatFolks Genealogical Society, the
Pilgrim Hall Museum for
their "What's new from Leiden?" page, the
Society of Mayflower Descendants in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
Muriel Cushing, and Messrs. George DeLano and
Dr. Jeremy Bangs for their continuing efforts to preserve this important landmark.
THANK YOU!
The DELANO Kindred, Inc.
PO Box 2635
Duxbury, MA 02331
© 2000, Delano Kindred and J.D. Bangs
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