History and building
History
Location and origin of the church
The faithful of the Willibrordstatie met in a church building on the Herenstraat since 1842. When this church became too small (400 seats for 1200 faithful), the church board decided to have a new church built elsewhere in the city. Pastor Stiphout took the lead and soon enough money was collected to realize the plans. The parish then bought a plot of land between the Annastraat and Minrebroederstraat in 1874. The building in the Minrebroederstraat that bordered this plot was also bought, in order to house the rectory.
The fact that the church board chose to build a new building fits in with the times. For centuries, Protestantism had been the only permitted religion and other religious communities were not allowed to practice their faith publicly. After 1795, this came to an end and the disadvantaged groups were able to move more freely.
The restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in 1853 further contributed to the emancipation of Catholics and heralded a period of great building activity in the Netherlands. Churches were also built in Utrecht, including the St. Willibrord Church and St. Martinus Church (on the Oudegracht, repurposed as an apartment complex).
The location where the new St. Willibrord Church in Utrecht was built is a special one. Previously, there had been a lodging house where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Constantijn Huygens, among others, had spent the night. Later, soldiers (with their horses) found shelter there. Before the construction of the St. Willibrord Church began, the building had finally served as an auxiliary church and a girls' and women's home.
Construction history
The lodging house that stood on the purchased plot was demolished, after which the construction work could begin. The first stone was laid on 6 April 1876. A neo-Gothic cruciform basilica was built between the surrounding buildings, designed by architect Alfred Tepe (1840-1920). Tepe had to take the irregular shape of the plot into account. This led, among other things, to the transepts not protruding further than the nave of the church, which is unusual. The nave is also quite short (namely four bays) and the choir is shallow.
Despite the limitations of the plot, Tepe and the builders managed to create a full-fledged church. It became a tall and slender brick basilica, consisting of an entrance portal, towers, a central nave with two aisles, a choir with two side choirs and other spaces around a courtyard. Contractor Van Zeeland received 89,800 guilders to complete all this, and the demolition of the existing building. Rumor has it that he received so many claims for damage to surrounding houses that he eventually went bankrupt.
After more than 14 months of construction, the church was put into use on 21 June 1877. The interior was still largely bare at the time: in the twenty-five years that followed, the rich painting, furnishings and stained glass windows were added in various phases.
The Saint Bernulphus Guild and its members
Alfred Tepe was a member of the Utrecht St. Bernulphus Guild, an association of Catholic gentlemen (at first only clergy) who wanted to revive ecclesiastical art. The founder was pastor Gerardus Wilhelmus van Heukelum (1834-1910), who had a predilection for the Gothic style. He surrounded himself with artists who also worked in the spirit of the Middle Ages and the Gothic style. This was expressed in the design of buildings and works of art in a 19th-century variant of the Gothic style, called the Neo-Gothic.
Gothic was seen as the architectural style of the (Catholic) churches of the Middle Ages. After centuries of suppression of Catholicism, going back to a time when everything was 'still good' seemed a logical step to give Catholicism an extra boost. Perhaps the idea that Gothic would lend itself well to distinguishing itself from Protestants, who traditionally had an aversion to richly decorated churches, also played a role.
churches.
In addition to architect Tepe, Van Heukelum also employed stained glass artist Heinrich Geuer (1841-1904),
sculptor Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg (1837-1919) and goldsmith Gerard Brom (1831-1882). These artists and their studios together created Gesamtkunstwerken, of which the St. Willibrord Church in Utrecht is a fine example.
The high choir, Maria choir and Sacred Heart choir
Although the entire church is richly decorated, upon entering one's attention is quickly drawn to the high choir with its two sub-choirs.
In the high choir, the symbolism of the Holy Sacrament is central. The altar was designed and built by Otto Mengelberg for 12,000 guilders. It was put into use on the feast day of St. Willibrord (7 November) in 1890. The altar consists of a stone altar tomb with a wooden winged altar above it. At the top is the triumphant Christ enthroned with the statues of Mary and John the Baptist below. Four reliefs depict various Bible stories, namely Christ and the Samaritan woman, the wedding at Cana, the Last Supper and the miraculous multiplication of the loaves.
A snake, dove, phoenix and lion are painted on the walls of the high choir. They symbolise the virtues of prudence, moderation, justice and strength. A triumphal beam by the Mengelberg studio was placed between the walls of the high choir in 1883, depicting the twelve apostles. The cross on the beam, with Mary and John the Evangelist next to it, from 1894, was also made by this studio.
To the left of the high choir is the Maria choir. In the centre is the altar, which was made by the Mengelberg studio in 1881. The statue of Mary with child is flanked by two shutters, with Jesaia and Mary on the left and Mary with father Joachim and mother Anna on the right. Artist Martinus Christiaan Schenk (1833-1911) painted these shutters. The stained glass window from 1895 depicts the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple. Next to this window are paintings of figures who had a special relationship with Mary.
The side choir on the right is dedicated to the Sacred Heart. The altar was made in 1877 by the Mengelberg studio. The statue of the Sacred Heart is central, Chrétien Lindsen painted Mary Magdalene and John the Evangelist on the shutters next to it. The stained glass window depicts the appearance of Christ with a bleeding heart to a nun. Various instruments of the passion and symbols of the suffering of Christ are depicted on the walls (passion flowers and pomegranates).
The baptismal chapel and the Willibrord chapel
As in the rest of the St. Willibrord Church, the studios of several artists from the St. Bernulphus Guild worked together on the baptismal chapel. For example, the baptismal font from 1883 was designed by FW Mengelberg and the copper lid was made by the studio of father and son Brom. The stained glass windows show Emperor Henry, Pope Cornelis, Anna teaching Mary and John the Baptist. The latter is also depicted on a walled-in dish from the 15th century.
The Willibrord Chapel was built in 1939 after a renovation of the space for the catechism and part of the confessional chapel. The copper altar with an enthroned Willibrord was made by the brothers Jan Eloy Brom (1891-1954) and Leo Brom (1896-1965). Artist Wim van Woerkom (1905-1998) provided the stained glass windows with, among others, Willibrord, Boniface, Paul and Peter.
1967-2005: from closure to restoration
In 1967, the St. Willibrord Church had to close due to the large decline in parishioners. The Archdiocese of Utrecht sold the church to the Catholic private individual AJ Lisman (1917-2002), who hoped to be able to preserve the church. He received help from Father Winand Kotte (1922-2006), who rented the church from 1971 and held mass there again. Although the building was saved, the decay increased over the years.
The church had to be either demolished or restored. In 1986, Father Kotte decided to buy the church and raise money for a restoration. Under the leadership of architect PD Van Vliet, the church was worked on for years. First, the exterior was tackled, followed by the interior. The large amount of work that the extensively decorated interior required cost a lot of money. Two government subsidies in 1996 and 2002 contributed greatly to the work being done. On November 3, 2005, the church was reopened.
The St. Willibrord Church in 2012
After a period of closure due to a large-scale restoration, the St. Willibrord Church has been functioning as a Catholic church for several years now. In addition to the religious services, there is a concert every Sunday and the church is available for activities such as lectures, exhibitions and music festivals. The church is also open to the public every Saturday. During the Church Viewing season, the opening hours are extended.
Interior
The colorful interior of the St. Willibrord Church
The moment the visitor leaves the entrance portal and enters the church, it immediately becomes clear what makes the St. Willibrord Church so unique. The entire church is richly and very colorfully decorated. The above-mentioned artists and their studios worked on the interior for many years.
The brick church was plastered and then furnished and painted in stages. The furniture was largely made by FW Mengelberg and his studio. The various components, such as the altars, pulpit, choir stall, baptismal font and triumphal beam, form a unity.
The wrought ironwork was done by Gerard Brom and his son Jan Brom (1860-1915) and the stained glass windows by Heinrich Geuer. Together with some of the paintings, these windows form a coherent whole of images of religious themes and saints. Naturally, Saint Willibrord was depicted a lot. In addition to religiously oriented subjects, there are also many decorative forms and the pillars and parts of the walls are provided with painted joints.
Chrétien Lindsen (1840-1898) was responsible for the painting of the church. In 1883 he started with the most important part: the choir. Then followed the nave and the transept. Although these spaces were also decorated extensively, there is a clear difference with the even more exuberant choir. The nave was decorated with, among other things, the four evangelists, the zodiac, the four elements, the four streams of paradise and the four cardinal directions. The side walls of the nave were provided with virtues and vices.
Lindsen completed his work in 1891. It has become an impressive whole, even though he made a mistake. On the large mural of Saint Christopher, which is located on the right side when entering the church, the coats of arms of the city of Utrecht and the province are depicted. Lindsen forgot to add the city coat of arms in the middle of the coat of arms of the province.
Special decorations
The head of John the Baptist
On the right in the wall of the baptistery is a cupboard, closed with an oak door with beautiful iron fittings. It is a false cupboard, only intended as a frame for the artwork, which is bricked in above the door.
It is a marble dish with the head of the dead John, sculpted in the 15th century, from Kalkar. It comes from the collection of priest GW van Heukelum (1834-1910), who collected a lot of church art and thus formed the beginning of the Episcopal Museum, later the Catharijneconvent.
Van Heukelum also founded the Bernulphusgilde in 1868, a group of artists who were given assignments by the diocese. The Sint Willibrorduskerk is their masterpiece and because the Middle Ages were their source of inspiration, the connection with the Middle Ages is literally made with the marble plate. A decorative addition with meaning.
Pulpit
The approximately five-metre high pulpit from 1885 stands against the south-western crossing pillar. It was made in the studio of Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg (1837-1919), located at Maliebaan 80, and donated by the parish priest Hendrik Jacobus Stiphout.
The pulpit has, in contrast to the usual medieval stone base, a cast iron base, a typical material for the late 19th century. The bowl and the sounding board are made of dark oak and the bowl is decorated with reliefs with scenes from the life of Willibrord: his missionary assignment, his episcopal consecration in Rome, his preaching and fresh water miracle and finally his deathbed in Echternach (Luxembourg). Below that are five contemporaries, including parish priest Stiphout, Mengelberg himself and architect Alfred Tepe.
The standing statues on the corners represent the German Emperor Henricus, the medieval construction bishop
Bernulphus, apostle James (with Henricus the name saints of the donor) and the successor of Willibrord
nl Bonifatius. These four statues were untraceable for forty years, from the closing of the parish church in 1967 until it was leased to the diocese in 2007, when they were carried in procession during the renewed consecration. The sounding board above has a floating dove on the inside, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The connection between the sounding board and the bowl against the column bears a Dutch poem with the date 17 July MDCCCLXXXV (1885).
Font
The baptismal font of the St. Willibrord Church still stands in its original place in the baptistery. It is a large, black stone basin, crowned by a high copper lid, which can be lifted and turned away by an iron tackle. The base and the water basin were made by Wilhelm Friedrich Mengelberg and the lid by Gerard and his son Jan Brom.
The baptismal chapel is closed off by a beautiful wrought iron gate by ornamental blacksmith Albertus Kniep. Snakes are depicted on the bars of the gate. They refer to Satan, who as a snake tempted Eve and Adam to eat the fruit of the 'tree of knowledge of good and evil'. Through this first sin, all of humanity became mortal and afflicted with a sinful nature: original sin. Redemption from original sin is possible through baptism.
The snakes in the fence flee from the baptismal water. The
bull heads on the fence refer to a text from 1 Kings 7:44: in the temple of Solomon there was a basin with water carried by 12 oxen. In the Middle Ages it was thought
people (wrongly) that this basin was a baptismal font. In this neo-Gothic church, Kniep keeps alive the medieval association of cattle with baptism.
In 1890, when the church was put into use, the clergy found it necessary to install a separate door (left) to the baptistery. Newborn babies and other baptismal candidates, who still bore original sin, were brought directly into the baptistery through the portal and could not desecrate the church space.
Organ
The Maarschalkerweerd organ
The organ in the St. Willibrord Church dates from 1885 and was originally located above the entrance to the baptistery on the right. Its maker, the famous Utrecht organ builder Michaël Maarschalkerweerd (1838-1915), was, like the other artists, also involved in the St. Bernulphus Guild.
In 1947 the organ was expanded and moved to the west façade. Due to restoration work in the church, the organ was removed from its place in 1997 and stored elsewhere. Before it was returned to a lower place in 2005, it was restored and provided with a new neo-Gothic front.
Clocks
In the crossing tower of the Sint Willibrordus church hang three bells, made in 1955 by Petit & Fritsen. These bells were a gift from the parishioners to their pastor H.Th. Mets, who celebrated his 40th anniversary as a priest that year.
Size and weight
Willibrord: 73 cm, 220 kg
Johannes Kardinaal: 60 cm, 130 kg (Pastor Mets, who held the then Archbishop of Utrecht in high esteem, honoured him with this clock).
Paulus: 49 cm, 70 kg
Apart from the names, the bells have no further texts.
Chiming bells
Bells St. Willibrord Church
Bibliography
Under the spell of the church. 25 years of Church Watching Utrecht, Utrecht 2007.- Reijntjes, R. St. Willibrordus Church Utrecht. Regensburg, 2008.
- Stenvert, R., C. Kolman, B. Olde Meierink, etc. Monuments in the Netherlands. Utrecht. Zwolle,1996.
- The Utrecht Archives, access 22-3 Roman Catholic parish of St. Willibrordus in Utrecht.
Text: Marieke Lenferink and Lisa Olrichs
Photography: Maarten Buruma, Henk Irrgang, Henk Jansen and Nina Slagmolen
Sound fragment: Theo van Soest