With the Reformation came diversity. The medieval Catholic churches became Dutch Reformed, while dissenting churches were built for Lutherans and Mennonites, and eventually, with "emancipation" in the 19th century, for Catholics, replacing their so-called hidden churches in private houses. The Reformed congregations of Walloon (Huguenot), German, and English refugees were assigned existing churches or chapels. Population increase caused the need for a major new Reformed church by the middle of the 17th century, - the Marekerk, while denominational splitting saw the rise of conservative, independent Reformed churches in the 19th century.

Our tour takes us into the ancient city center of Leiden, within the 17th-century moats, to look at these historic church buildings and their furnishings.

Medieval Leiden had three parish churches, the Vrouwekerk, the Hooglandsekerk, and the Pieterskerk, which was the first, mentioned as early as the 12th century. The west end of Leiden's Pieterskerk was rebuilt after the tower collapsed in 1512. The tower had occupied the first two bays of the nave. No one was hurt when it collapsed, but beams from the tower fell across the bed where the pastor was sleeping.

In front of the nave end wall is a two-story porch, to which a third story was added in connection with enlarging the bellows of the organ, 1637-1642. The narrow window was then bricked up for the enlarged organ on the inside of the wall. Previously, no doubt, the longer pipes had flanked the west window, as in one of the churches in Utrecht.

For more on this: - J. D. Bangs, "The Leiden Pieterskerk West End, 1512 - 1637, Aspects of Rebuilding and Change," Bulletin van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond, 84 (1985), I - 15. and J. D. Bangs, Church Art and Architecture in the Low Countries before 1566 (= Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, vol. 37. Kirksville, Missouri: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1997).

Click on one of the links at the bottom of the page to begin the tour..