De Nieuwe Kerk, Delft

The Nieuwe Kerk is only 600 or so years old.  There is a statue of Hugo Grotius in front of the church.  The church stands at one of end of the Market Square across from the Stadhuis.  I think that the three-tone tower is especially interesting looking and pretty.  

There is a little model of the the church above the front door into the church.



















It has a massive organ as well.

Members of the royal family are buried at the Nieuwe Kerk, including William the Silent.  Since Protestant churches do not need to use the chancel of a church (the bit where the altar is in a Roman Catholic church) it frees up all kinds of space for giant tombs.

This little tomb belongs to a little six year old daughter of the royal family.  It is very tiny.














This guy (whose name I cannot remember) is a hero of the Dutch Empire, who died in the 19th century.  What I found interesting was the symbolism.  Above him, there is a bas relief of a weeping woman and a pelican.  The woman represents a grieving Netherlands and the pelican, apparently, represents maternal love.  A type of symbolism which totally escapes me.  If you notice, the Roman robes and the Roman reclining position are combined with the 19th century shoes, 19th century style sideburns and collar.  

By far the largest and grandest tomb is that of William the Silent.  It is made out of several different kinds of marble and is alone in the center of the chancel.

 The other thing that the Nieuwe Kerk has is a massive tower.  It is 109 meters, or 357 feet, tall.  It has 356 very, very narrow spiral stairs to the top.  I paid up and climbed the tower and took lots of pictures.  Saying that I did not find this enjoyable would be a MASSIVE understatement.  It was super crowded and to get by people going in the opposite direction, you have to scrunch up against the wall or against the pillar at the center of the spiral staircase and then just kind of wiggle around.  The little walkways around the top, on which you could stand, were very, very narrow and it was a long, long, long, long way down.  By the time I got back down to the bottom, I was just shaking.  I got home before I got over it.  I do, however, now have lots of pictures of Delft from very high in the air.  I even have a picture I took of myself, while clinging to the wall with my shoulder blades and the balustrade with my free hand.